


Taking a break in Gravity Falls

by Mother_Mortician



Category: Gravity Falls, Steven Universe (Cartoon), steven universe future - Fandom
Genre: Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Crossover, Dream Journal, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Help, I don't know what I'm doing, M/M, Multi, Nightmares, Other, Panic Attacks, Paranoia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Screaming, Sleepy Cuddles, Steven/Dipper/Mabel, Suspicions, Therapy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:21:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 40
Words: 75,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24235705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mother_Mortician/pseuds/Mother_Mortician
Summary: After being on the road for a while Steven Universe decides he should take a break from driving, and resting in a small quiet boring city called Gravity Falls. He thinks he can just lay back for a while, but still gets a job because, face it, he has a lot of money, and he doesn't want to look like he's loaded.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe
Comments: 793
Kudos: 649





	1. Getting an idea of how things work

“Hello?” Connie’s sudden voice woke him, he didn’t bother opening his eyes all the way,  
“yeah, Mom, we have separate rooms  
mmmhmm...I know...I’ll remind him.  
I’ll call you back in about an hour.  
Yeah. okay.  
Love you too, bye” she hung up the phone and laid back down in bed, and looked at Steven’s hardly awake face and put a hand up and held his face. He opened his eyes just a little bit more, smiled, and reached out and pulled her in to hold her tight.  
“I woke you, didn’t I?” she said, face in his chest.  
“I mean...technically you did...but it’s fine, I’m rested” his words felt like small vibrations on the side of Connie’s face. 

Connie hasn’t been telling her mom she’s been sleeping in the same room as Steven,let alone the same bed, but it’s not like anything hinky was going on. Steven often had bad nightmares, where it made him start to have a panic attack, and turn pink, Connie once found him having a nightmare where he was in full diamond mode, bright pink, and loudly sobbing in his sleep. Despite having been months ago since his “breakdown”, he still had nightmares, he called his Therapist twice a week, when they first started meeting, it was every single day for a month, but after he got everything out and they talked about it, they decreased the amount of meetings. He only decreased meetings because after talking things out, he felt like he could tell the Gems and his dad. His therapist said to keep a journal of all his dreams or thoughts, or if something he forgot to mention before during their sessions that they can talk about later. It was about 12in by 8in, a red fabric around it with a Gold star. When making the outside Steven thought it was a funny joke to himself, it has a star to show he is technically still a Crystal Gem, but also that most of his Problems are Gem related.  
“Did you sleep okay?” Connie asked while squeezing around Steven’s waist, burying her face into his chest.  
“Eehhhhhh…. Before you came? I felt like crap. Not the best dream… thanks for sleeping with me… I really appreciate it.... I don’t know if it’s holding you, or just knowing you’re with me.. It- it really helps” Steven said while playing with Connie’s hair.  
“You know I love you, right Steven?” a sound came out of his mouth only to be cut off.  
“Y-yeah I know you do…” he looked like he was doubting it. A  
“Steven… Come here” she said while pulling his face to be level with hers on the bed.  
His face was level and he was looking straight into her big brown eyes  
“Look at me” she said while holding both of his cheeks  
“aha I am looking at you”. His smile made his cheeks look extra squishy between her hands.  
“I love you so much Steven Universe, you’re not a burden, I will always be here if you need me, don’t be afraid to ask”, he matched her, and held her face in both of his hands  
“And I love you so much Connie Maheswaran, and thank you… it means a lot”.  
They then both leaned into a deep and loving kiss.  
After the kiss Connie and Steven sit up,  
“So, where are you heading to next?”  
Steven cups his chin “well, I’ve been on the road for a while, and I wanna chill out for a bit, I heard this town called Gravity Falls thats a two hour drive from here is a small area with like 100 people, and lots of forest and mountain ranges, so I thought I can relax there for a bit”  
Connie coughed on a laugh “Gravity Falls? That’s a silly name, but sounds perfect for you. Nice quiet, not a lot of people, and maybe you can take on Hiking? I know you’ve spent a lot of time in big cities, but this sounds good for you!”  
They packed up, so Connie could go back home and Steven can get on the road again. They had a quick breakfast together, Steven took his antidepressants, and then said their goodbyes, and were on their way.

Steven had been on the road for almost a year now, maybe a year, he kind of lost track, he just realized when seasons changed or Holidays occurred or special birthdays since he had reminders on his phone. It was early June, he kept thinking about his 18th birthday coming up in a few months in August. He came back home through Lion to celebrate Connie’s birthday, and his dad’s, and Christmas, but besides that, he didn’t visit much, not without an occasion.  
He had met a lot of new and interesting people. Despite every new town and person, he was never truly himself with anyone. Sometimes people would recognize him as a guy in a commercial about a school, but he just says “it must be someone who looks like me” and then the person would just accept it.  
All his life he’s just been wearing his dad’s old unsold merchandise, though he still had a bunch of the shirts still with the rest of the clothes, with money he bought some more clothes. Mostly new shirts with fun things on them, a denim jacket, a few flannels, a few button up shirts, a few nice clothes for when he took connie on dates, with nice fancy shoes too. He found a small star enamel pin of a star, and just pinned it to his clothes whenever he changed. He bought some shorts when he visited California along with a sundress, however some people looked at him weird when they saw him in his sundress but he just thought “it’s my body, my business”. He attended a Pride Parade, which he didn’t know existed, but he loved it. Everyone was so happy and accepting, a lot of people had body glitter and body paint, and he joined in on the fun. He bought a shirt that commemorated the Parade, it just said Pride in rainbow on the front with the year written small under it, and every kind of flag on the back. He also bought a few pride flag capes, thinking about the Gems. Though he can’t remember all the conversations he had, one was funny and kinda stuck with him.  
“Hey pal, are you having fun?”  
Steven: “Yeah this is so cool!”  
“They do this every year!”  
Steven: “That’s fantastic, I should back next time”  
“Yeah you should, so what kind of “Pride” are you proud of?”  
Steven: “aha what??” visibly confused but still happy  
“Youknow, like what’s your sexuality, your sexual orientation, romantic interests?”  
Steven paused, this is the first time anyone had ever asked him this  
“Uh.... Connie?”  
“Aha no like, are you into guys, girls, both, neither, in between, something?”  
Steven: “Well i’ve never really thought of it, my family always said they’ll love me no matter what”  
“Aww man can your family adopt me?”  
“I don't know, you gotta ask them”

He also remembers telling a few people how he officiated his Moms’ wedding. And they thought it was super cool, Steven stupidly gave his number to a few people saying he’ll officiate their weddings. Though most took it seriously and one or two people were just trying to flirt with him. He actually ended up with an invite to officiate a person’s wedding who he met at the parade. He marked it in his calendar. 

He was so lost in his thoughts before he realized that the sign for gravity falls was right up ahead. Driving through the town it was just like he imagined, he opened his windows when he came into town and smelt the fresh pine and nature. A deep breath relaxed him, even though he didn’t realize he was tense.  
He drove around for a bit, taking in all the sights, and then decided to go get some food. “Greasy’s Diner… doesn’t sound the healthiest, but not many other options”. Steven had gone back to being a vegetarian, it felt great to him, he couldn’t get himself to eat meat again.  
“Hey sweetie what would you like to order for today?” said a woman after Steven had taken his seat.  
“Mmm a hot chocolate, a coffee and I was wondering, can I substitute the bacon for hashbrowns on the breakfast special?” Steven said timidly.  
“Sure thing” said the lady, and took his menu. 

He looked at his phone, and texted Connie  
“It is so pretty here :D ” quickly followed by “I mean not as pretty as you :P”  
Connie texted back pretty quickly “you silly :)”  
After looking around, he didn’t want to be mean but he made a small assumption  
“Connie, I feel like I should get a job for a bit while I’m here, if they find out how much money I have I feel like I may have to leave town.”  
“Lol yeah okay” there was a pause and the screen just said ‘typing’  
“Steven, you don’t have any legal documentation”  
“True but remember, my dad and I have been working on making me a legal citizen, so hopefully they get that it’s a work in progress”  
“Okay Steven, just be careful”  
“Will do Connie, my food’s here, I’ll talk to you later, I love you”  
“I love you too! <3” 

While Steven was eating he overheard a conversation, he didn’t mean to eavesdrop but they were talking loud in the booth over.  
“So kids, where do you want to go today? You can only pick one place, so we can get back on the road”  
“Well, we haven’t been to the Mystery Shack, I saw a flier saying they were having a fair today!”  
“That’s settled then!”  
Steven thought to himself ‘a fair sounds fun’.  
After he finished eating, he asked the waitress for directions, and went on his way.  
To The Mystery Shack.


	2. Mystery Shack Festivities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven attends the Mystery Shack Fair, and makes some new friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the " /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ " is suppoed to show the change is character perspective.

Steven had an idea what it would look like, kind of pictured Funland. This is not like Funland. It looked a little janky, straight on the forest floor. There were a bunch of people playing games, trying to win prizes, rides that looked safe to ride and some that looked like a death trap, like the ferris wheel. There was a place where you could win a pig, he thought maybe he could do that but a little scared lion would try eating it. There was food and sugary food items. Despite having lost a lot of weight, he still wanted that cotton candy. He didn’t have a six pac or anything, but he was pretty muscular and firm, broad shouldered. Like his diamond form, but not as tall, glowy, or problematic. 

Soos didn’t remember how Stan did it, but he got a ticket booth for people to use on the rides, and cash to everything else. If it was something that wasn’t owned by the Mystery Shack Soos still got about 30% . He manned the ticket stand. 

Steven went over to the ticket counter and bought some tickets from the man  
“Hey dude, if you want to get a ice cold slushie you just need to buy 2 things at a food place”  
“Thats awesome, thanks!” Even though it wasn’t that expensive, and the food cost more, he did like free stuff. 

As Steven walked away he heard an old sounding man scold the guy at the counter 

“You know Soos, you’re going to lose money if you keep letting people get free things.”  
“But Mr. Pines, I’ve actually made more money for the Shack in the last few years than before, they spend more money if they get a deal out of it” 

Steven didn’t really know how to feel about the encounter. He didn’t know if the old man was cheap, or just cautious with his money.  
He knew there were high risks going on the rides, but he always loved rides.  
He got in line for the ferris wheel, this should be fun, right?

He’s getting seated on the ride, and the ride operator yells out into the line if there were any single riders that wanted to get on sooner. One yelled out, and ran to the front of the line. 

Her hair was in two braids over her shoulders, with a shirt with her face and a pig on it and hearts, and a flannel around her waist. She wore some jeans with rips at the knees and bright pink shoes, he stopped questioning ripped jeans after he saw people wearing them all over the country. She had a huge smile on her face, with some straight teeth. She looked about his age, but shorter. She looked a little too excited.  
She was in fact, not a single rider, she was planning on going with her pig, but she thought if she had the chance to get on with a stranger, she should do it. She left her pig with the ride operator, who yelled over Soos to come get the pig from them. She sat down next to Steven and the ride takes off.  
He looked out at all the views of the forest, but felt eyes on him and turned, she was just sitting there smiling at him.  
“um...Hi?”  
“Well helloo, I’m Mabel, you from around these parts?”  
“N-no..” he felt really uncomfortable.  
“Same, I’m actually from California, I come here with my twin every summer since we were 12, and well now we’re 17 so, kind of a tradition”  
“Oh wow I’m 17 too” he doesn't want to be uncomfortable, she probably has good intentions.  
“NO WAY, it’s like fate isn’t it”  
“What is..?” he’s trying his best at this point.  
“That we’re both 17 at the same time, well 3 of us, if you want to count my brother”  
“Y-yeah super cool”  
And then they were told to get off, apparently the ticket only paid for going around once, you’d have to spend more to go in the circle a few times.  
“Hey you wanna come meet my pig? He's at the ticket counter with Soos”  
“Aha yeah sounds cool, I was kind of guessing you had a pig, y’know based on your shirt”  
She looked down at her shirt, “OH, RIGHT, yeah, aha, I forgot I even had this shirt on”, she forgot since she’s been super focused on Steven.  
They walked over to the counter for her to retrieve her pig from Soos, they did finger guns at each other, then Mabel pulled Steven to the side of the fair so they weren’t in anyone’s way.  
“This is Waddles” she gestured down to the huge Pig on a leash, wearing a vest that said ‘Emotional Support Animal’.  
“He’s a cutie, isn’t he?”  
Steven didn’t want to ask about the emotional support, some people just don’t want to talk about it, or they get anxiety.  
“Yeah he’s cute, can I pet him?”  
“Sure thing cutie” 

Steven’s nose scrunched up with the rest of his face at this comment, not like he didn’t like the compliment, just not coming from a practically stranger. He went down on one knee and pet the pig, who immediately rolled on it’s side so Steven could rub its belly. Which led Steven to get on both knees and sit on his feet. He really missed petting an animal, even though he just saw Lion this morning with Connie, it still felt like a while. 

Footsteps were approaching from behind him, and Steven got a bit tense, he didn’t want to just jump around to see who it was, cause he thought that’ll look crazy, he calmed down a bit when they started talking to Mabel.  
“Mabel what are you doing over here? Soos told me you were walking away with...some...guy” the guy realized there was a stranger petting the pig. But who was slowly getting up and dusting himself off.  
“We came over here so we weren’t in anyone’s way, and this is...You know, I don’t think I got your name”  
“Oh I’m sorry, I’m Steven”  
“See this is Steven” Mabel gestured at Steven for the guy who looked like what Mabel would look like if she was a boy.  
The gestured to herself “Mabel” and then gestured to the new person “and this is my brother Dipper”.  
He was wearing a Dark blue Hoodie with the sleeves scrunched up on his arms, pants and hiking boots.  
“Well Hi Steven, how old are you?” Despite Steven not being that old, Dipper had an impression that he was in his mid twenties.  
“Oh I’m 17, Mabel was telling me that you guys were also 17?” It was a statement but Steven said it like a question.  
“Yess, we are. Mabel, can we talk?”  
“Mmm? What? Yeah” she was busy looking at Steven with dreamy eyes.  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
They walked a little bit away, leaving Steven with Waddles, and started talking.  
“Seriously Mabel? You have a crush on a new guy? I thought you were done being boy crazy”  
Mabel rubbed her arm “well...I was with Lake for a long time… I just want to cheer up, It’s not like I’m trying to spend the rest of my life with him or anything. Maybe just a summer fling”  
“Mabel just...be careful.”  
“You can come and join us, he looks like he got a lot of tickets, and there aren’t that many rides, and he looks loney, doesn’t he?”

They look over at him and he’s back to petting Waddles. He’s just sitting there with black Pants, a red flannel and light Pink high top shoes with a big star on the outers of each shoe.  
“Okay I guess, but like don’t flirt so much, especially when I’m around, it makes me uncomfortable seeing my sister flirt”  
“You betcha, only a little bit,” she said with a smile. 

They walked back up to Steven, who stood back up while they headed back, Dipper noticed Steven also had a little star pin on the left side of his flannel. Dipper didn’t mean to stare but he noticed that Steven is like a whole half a foot taller than them, and had very broad shoulders, and started wishing that he had broader shoulders too. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

‘Why is he staring at me?’ Steven thought and started to get a little uncomfortable.  
“Hey um...are you okay?” he said waving a hand in front of Dipper’s face. 

The guy shook his head a bit  
“I’m sorry, I zone out sometimes when I’m tired”. Steven didn’t know that he was being lied to, in fact Dipper was the most awake since he had a huge cup of coffee this morning.  
“Yeah I totally get it, that happens to me sometimes” Steven responded being polite but thought ‘well hardly ever when looking at someone’. Before Mabel could volunteer Steven he spoke up “hey I think i got too many tickets, you want some? You don’t have to stay with me or anything, I just don’t want to waste them” he said while rubbing the back of his neck.  
Mabel grabbed Dipper's arm “WE’d love to”.  
They went on a few rides and Steven had 5 tickets left.  
“Oh my gosh Steven, do this one” Mabel gestured to the water dunk, with her own Grunkle Stan sitting in the dunk seat.  
“Aha okay, I’ve seen these, I’ve just never tried dunking anyone”.  
There was a sign that said 1 dollar or 5 tickets for 3 balls. (5 tickets was about 5 dollars but Stan still managed to get people to agree to it, unfortunately for the paying customers he fixed it so even if a ball hits the target, it still wouldn’t budge)  
“Hey you! Big guy, you think you’re so tough? Well if you were tough you’d be able to dunk me!” Stan yelled out to a huge muscle guy who was at the front of the line. He threw that ball aaaand, nothing. “Oh! hahaha, what a strong maaan ah hahahahahaha” Stan joked as soon as the guy used all the balls. Two more people went until it was Steven’s turn.  
“Well Looky here, He's a curly headed guy, you think you’re strong? Try and dunk me!”  
Steven didn’t really want to look like he knew exactly how to throw something with precision or that he was super strong. He threw the first ball at a regular human strength and purposefully missed.  
“Aw He thought he would look so cool! Hahaha”  
Steven threw the second one the same strength but slightly closer to the target.  
“Wow, who taught you to throw, your MOM”  
Steven didn’t want to look like that hurt or anything, because his mind went straight to Pink diamond.  
“Yes.” Steven said firmly. The twins looked at him like ‘that actually struck a nerve’, throughout the whole day of hanging out, Steven was happy as a kid in a toy store.  
“HA This outta be good,” Stan said. 

Steven pulled his arm back and focused on the target, but he threw it at his Normal strength not Human strength. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Through Dipper’s eyes it all happened so fast. He saw Steven pull his arm back and throw, it hit the target, Grunkle Stan fell into the water. Dipper looked back over at the target, and it was gone, broken off, and on the floor, and there was a hole in the back board. He looked back at Steven who looked serious for half a second until all the patrons of the fair started applauding him. Serious face to just an awkward smile. 

“OH MY GOSH Steven that was SO COOL!” Mabel shouted and threw her arms in the arm.  
‘“That’s one word for it” Dipper mumbled under his breath.  
Against his better judgement he left Mabel alone with Steven, and headed to the Shack. 

It was closed for the day to customers, but he lives there, at least in the summers he does. He entered the code in the vending machine, and went down into the basement. 

Ford wasn’t much of a big party kind of person. It’s not like he couldn’t go up into the house, just he wanted to keep all his weird things down there. He was making some notes in a new journal since..you know who.. Destroyed all of them. He tried making it more factual about all the species and nothing too secret like the portal he had made, and nothing about Bill. He was just sitting down at a desk, wearing a pain forest green turtleneck, and black pants. 

“Hey there Dipper, are you not enjoying the festivities?”  
“ OH I am, I just had a question, can a normal strong human...say I don’t know...Throw a ball through 2 thick pieces of wood” Dipper started off, trying not to be too concerned.  
“Mmmm well it depends on the age of the wood and the angle, not just their strength. I’m sure a normal strong human could do something like that. Hell, there was that small woman who lifted a heavy piller to save her kids, do they look and seem normal otherwise?”  
“Yeah..actually” Dipper felt like he must have just been paranoid.  
“If you want, I can come out and just keep an eye on the person just to ease your nerves, do you know if they’re still here?”  
“Well he should still be with Mabel, we've actually been hanging out for most of the day”  
“Okay, go back and join them, I’m sure they have no ill intentions”  
“Okay Great Uncle Ford” and they both headed up to the fair. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Come let's get on this ride” Mabel said while pulling Steven towards ‘the tunnel of love and corndogs’. It was the only ride they hadn't been on yet. He might have been oblivious to Mabel’s flirting before, but here is where it hit him. 

~~~~Even though it wasn’t his first kiss with Connie, it must have been their first kiss anywhere but home. she pulled him onto the ‘Tunnel of love’ ride, and as soon as they were alone Connie grabbed his face away from looking at the scenes being displayed on the ride and kissed him. He was shocked but he was very happy about it. She met up with him at a carnival on Florida Island. He needed Connie there with him when he went to go meet his grandparents. It went well. ~~~~~

He stopped walking, she kept trying to pull him, when she realized no matter how hard she pulled he literally would not move. They stopped before they even reached the line.

“What's wrong I thought...you liked me? You’ve been nice to me all day…” she looked so hurt.  
“No Mabel I like you, I think you’re cool, but like..I like you like a friend, I have a partner already… I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong idea… I didn’t want to hurt you..”  
“No.. it’s fine..I get it…” Tears started welling in her eyes and she ran off pulling waddles with her.  
Steven felt like he couldn’t chase after her for a minute, he felt like his shoes were nailed to the ground. He didn’t want to hurt anyone, he was told to not try to solve everyone’s problems, but this was because of him, wasn’t it?  
Finally he felt like he could move again, and chased after her, but she was out of sight, he thought maybe she went back to where they were before. Out of the way, not around anyone really, maybe she’s there. He ran to where they were before and she was there with waddles, sitting on a log and crying into her hands.  
“Mabel…?” Steven said with a hand on her shoulder.  
She looked up from her hands, her eyes were puffy.  
“What do you want?” she said with a frustration to her voice.  
He sat down next to her on the log  
“Look Mabel, I really would like to be your friend, I think you’re a cool person. My heart just belongs to someone else, we’ve been best friends since I was 13 and we’ve been through a lot together... she’s the love of my life….I hope you can find someone who is just as crazy about you, as you are for them”  
Mabel wiped her eyes from all the tears.  
“Yeah you’re right.... I’d like to be your friend too… sorry for making it awkward…. It’s just… I was with someone for a year, and I thought they were the one, you know? But once I told them that I…” she looked at his face, and there was genuine concern beaming from his eyes and she thought ‘maybe if I tell him now, he can decide if he really wants to be my friend’ she wiped the her bangs from her face “that I...am Asexual..t-they broke up with me, told me they didn’t see the relationship progressing. That I was taking away what they really wanted...and they wasted a year with me...that no one will ever love me since I’m not interested in..y’know” she looked back at his face after she told him and he didn’t look disgusted that she was Asexual or the excess of information, but he looked mad.  
“Seriously? What an asshole. Screw him. Who would even say something like that” he stopped and took a deep breath “Mabel, someone will love you, everything about you, and respect your wishes, and respect that you aren’t interested in that, I went to a Pride Parade a few months back and there were many people like you, you’ll meet someone, and you’ll be happy, okay?” 

“You really think so?” she said with a sniffle, and he smiled and nodded. “Thank you Steven” she said and wrapped her arms around him and hugged him, he was shocked for a second and hugged her back. She didn’t let go of him for a while, he heard occasional sniffles. 

They both jumped when they heard a sudden clearing of a throat directly behind them. 

“What is going on here?” It was Dipper.  
Steven was going to say something, but Mabel stood up and quickly went over to Dipper and hugged him.  
“Steven’s amazing,” Mabel said into Dipper's shoulder. He scrunched his nose and glared at Steven, but quickly softened when Mabel grabbed his shoulders.  
“He told me, one day someone will love me, for me. And that we can be friends”  
Dipper looked over to Steven “Friends? Just friends?” and she just had a big smile and nodded.  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
Steven offered to buy them some food since it was already getting dark outside, and they suggested a better place to eat  
“Our Great Uncle Ford makes the best food” Mabel said excitedly

“We should probably tell him that we’re bringing someone extra for him to cook for...Why don’t I run up ahead and let him know?”

And off he ran into the house. 

Ford was in the kitchen at that point, getting some food out to cook for dinner. 

“AH, Dipper, so that guy you were telling me about, I watched him, and I didn’t notice anything peculiar about him” 

“Ahaaaa….well actually about him, we invited him to join us for dinner” 

“Oh, okay. Are you still suspicious about him or is he just a friend now?” 

Dipper smiled “a friend, his name is Steven by the way-”. 

They both turned when the door opened.  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“So you must be Steven?” Great Uncle Ford went over and put a hand out to shake it, Steven took his hand,  
“Oh wow, six fingers! I’ve never seen that many fingers on a human before!” his expression changed to slight Panic ‘what are you saying Steven?, that’s the weirdest thing you’ve said all day’ he thought. Ford’s expression changed to suspicion immediately.  
“What?”  
“Aha, well I’ve only seen six fingers on a Lemur at the zoo, I think it was called Aye-Aye, but I’m not super sure.” his panic was gone ‘nice save Steven’ He thought. 

“Quite true, I’ve done some studies on those while I was doing fieldwork a few years back.” Ford thought that was a pretty believable answer but his suspicion stayed. Only a little.

“So, young man, what do you like eating? I’m making a chicken alfredo noodle dish, sound good?”  
“Yeah sounds good, I’m actually a vegetarian, so besides the chicken, it all sounds good”

“Okay, i’ll keep it on the side then.” 

Soon Stan came into the house, got dressed and joined them. Steven apologised for dunking him.  
They all ate together, talking about their lives, Steven told them where he was from and about the places he’s visited. They talked about everything, except for anything weird, supernatural, or alien. So, hardly anything exciting. 

Suddenly they were on the topic of Steven looking for a job and looking for a place to rent out. 

“Hey we have an extra room, we can rent it out to you, and Soos can do with more staff since Wendy decided to do college, it’s all online, but she hardly works when she’s here” Stan suggested 

“Wow really?” 

“Mm yeah, how does 200 a month sound, and a smaller paycheck to pay for the extra living expenses” 

“That sounds great Mr. Pines, thank you” 

“You only have to sleep on the couch or something tonight since we gotta clean out the room”

“Oooo what if he sleeps in our room for tonight? And slumber party!” 

They just look at Mabel and Dipper, Dipper just shrugs  
“Eh, I’m okay with that”  
“Then you guys can have a slumber party” .  
“Yay!!” Mabel ran over and hugged both Grunkles around the necks, “Thank you”.  
All three ran up stairs to start the night festivities, except only Mabel seemed to be the only one with a general idea of what to do during a slumber party. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“So going a little easy on his wallet there, Stanley?” Ford asked while they were cleaning up the kitchen.  
“Well, I’m chivalrous, what can I say?” Ford just looks at him and raises an eyebrow.  
“Okay okay, it’s just...He’s been living out of his car for a while… you heard what he said he only started living with his mom’s family when he turned 13...before that all he slept in was a van..with his dad...that was his home… for 13 years...it’s sad…” despite Stanley never having kids, it’s not like he didn’t want to, but at this point, it wasn’t going to happen. He thought he was going to be a dad for a bit, but it didn’t end well. After that, the relationship fizzled out.  
“Oh Stanley... “ Ford knew his brother wasn’t much of an affectionate guy, and neither was he, so he didn’t really know what to say.  
“Well tomorrow, we can get the room ready?”  
“Yeah.”  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Dipper didn’t know what to do, he took off his binder, and if he kept his hoodie on, it won’t be too obvious. He didn’t think that Steven would say anything about it, but he just wasn’t ready, he’d only been on hormones for a few years. He looked at himself in the mirror, “I can do this”. And walked out of the restroom.  
Before he opened the attic door, he heard some laughter. He didn’t really expect to see what he saw when he opened the door. 

Steven was wearing some of Mabel’s hair clips in his hair to pull his curls back, and he had a face mask that looked like a pink cat. Mabel sported the same attire, except she pulled her hair up in a bun. She was painting his nails a bright pink color, it was the only one she had right now, but Dipper knew that if she had more colors, she would do an entire rainbow. 

Steven looked up “Oh hey Dipper, you wanna join?” 

Dipper just stood there, shook his head and headed to his bed. He sat on his bed and pulled out a sketchbook, and just started drawing. He just drew a picture of Waddles who was sleeping on the floor next to Steven, but it ended up just being a picture of Waddles and Steven.  
They starting talking quietly when they realized Dipper laid down to sleep.  
But soon they all laid down to sleep, Mabel and Waddles slept in her bed, Dipper in his, and Steven on the floor on a foldable mattress Stan pulled out. 

~~~~

Dipper had been asleep for a while,he was having a nightmare, and then something woke him up. It was dark when he opened his eyes, the moonlight shining in through the window. Steven was gone, the mattress was still there, but he couldn’t find Steven. Until suddenly, he heard crying coming from the other side of the room, by the door. He was glowing pink, Dipper rubbed his eyes again, just to make sure his sleepy eyes weren’t playing tricks on his, no, Steven was still glowing pink. He was sitting on the floor, hugging his knees, his face was buried in his arms, and he was crying.  
Dipper tip toed his wat over to Steven, and tried to whisper quietly  
“Steven…?”  
Steven quickly looked up, his eyes were full of fear and pain, and drenched with tears, ‘was it the fear of discovery? Was he scared of something here…? Why is he pink?’ Dipper thought as he slowly got closer to Steven. He put a hand out to touch Steven’s shoulder, but he flinched, and Dipper recoiled. Steven went back to hiding his face, he said nothing. He stopped crying and silence settled over the room. Dipper sat next to him for a bit, then quietly asked “Do you need a hug?” Steven pulled his face up from his arms, but didn’t look at Dipper’s face “please…”. Dipper stretched out his arms around Steven, who lowered his knees, and put his arms around Dipper. Steven thought he was done crying, but the contact of someone hugging him, made him start crying again. Even though concern washed over Dipper, he was also thinking one question ‘What the hell is he?’ as he looked down at Steven’s glowing skin. Steven was sobbing into Dippers shoulder, but trying so hard not to squeeze tight. Dipper's hold tightened.

“It’s okay, Steven, I’m here”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started chapter one last night, and finished it this morning, and wrote this today. I had free time. :D  
> also I'm ignoring my scholarly responsibilities, just a bit, but it'll get finished on time.


	3. Do coffee and antidepressants mix well?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven's trying to have a good morning in the new house, but it doesn't really go that way. It'll all works out in the end. Ford gets to know Steven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW. If you can't handle discriptions of bad cuts, skip the line after "Can I see it? I may be able to help". and also panic attacks. it's like the whole second half.

Steven woke up on the floor in front of the door, he noticed Dipper was holding him in his sleep. He looked around the room,from what he could tell from the light coming in it was still early morning, and Mabel was still asleep. Steven remembered what happened last night, but he hoped Dipper would think it’s a dream.

He scooped up Dipper, and carried him over to his bed. He felt something against his body when he picked up Dipper that he didn’t expect to, under Dipper’s hoodie. Steven quietly thought about it, and when he placed Dipper in his bed, and covered him with the blanket, he made the connection. ‘Ohh, okay’ was the first thought. Second thought was ‘at Pride parade people would scream out they were trans, maybe he just isn’t as comfortable yet… you can’t force someone to be confident’. But that was it. 

Part of him felt like he invaded Dipper’s privacy, he genuinely didn’t mean to, but will respect Dipper’s privacy going forward. And respect him as the man he is. He looked over at Mabel who was snoring, and cuddled up with the large pig. He folded up his “mattress” and left the room, trying to be as quiet as possible. 

He heard something downstairs, but he wasn’t sure what it was. He was fidgeting with the keys in his pocket, until he found the source of the sound. It was Ford making coffee. He was wearing a t-shirt with a big cardigan on top of it, blue sweat pants and just socks on his feet. 

“Good Morning” Steven said as he entered the kitchen, which made Ford jump and spill the water he was getting ready to put in the coffee maker. 

“Oh geeze I’m sorry. Here, let me help, any rags I can’t use?”  
“I don’t think it matters too much” they were both cleaning up the water off the floor  
“Good morning Steven, sorry I didn’t say it before, You startled me, I just thought I was the only one who wakes up this early”  
They finished wiping everything up off the floor and Ford starts again with filling up the water for coffee.  
“Don’t worry about it, I was just heading to my car because I left my medications in there” Steven said meekly.  
“Oh don’t let me slow you down, we can keep talking if you want after you get them”  
Steven walked to the car, and just grabbed his whole Duffle bag, so he won’t have to make another trip later, and walked back to the car. 

By the time Steven got back into the house, he heard the Coffee maker running, and Ford was sitting at the table staring at it with his face resting on his hand. 

“Hey I’m sorry if this is rude...but what do I call you? Dr. Pines or Ford or...Sanford…?” Steven looked a little awkward at Ford before placing his duffle on the chair to get his medications out. 

“Oh, well you can call me 'Ford' if you want.” 

“Oh okay, thanks, um, do you have anything I can drink?” Steven said as started rummaging around looking for his meds. 

“Well if you wait a bit, there will be coffee, water, milk, and I think there's some juice”  
Steven checked his phone, he had to take them in 10 mins, he can wait, his alarm will go off anyway to remind him.

“I have 10 mins, I’ll wait for coffee...aha! Gotcha” He said as he pulled out his medications.  
He pulled out two separate medication bottles. Against their better judgement his doctor let him take half a year worth of medication with him on the road. They were pretty big containers, which led Ford asking

“I don’t mean to intrude… which medications require you to take them so early?” 

Steven looked up from getting one of each medication out. 

“Oh… “ he let out a quiet nervous laugh and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Well one, I have to take in the morning, because it can make it hard to sleep if I take it too late, and the other, they said I can take it any time, so it’s just easier to take them at the same time, and I have to commit to taking both at a specific time and not take it speratically but if I don’t take them at all I...get bad…”  
“Ah I see” Steven left the bottles on the table for a minute, while he went to get a clean cup from the sink and get some Coffee. Ford looked over at the medication names bupropion and sertraline, Ford wrote that down on a notepad on his napkin with a pen that was left on the table. Then he shoved the napkin into his pocket. 

Steven sat back down at the table 

“You don’t happen to have any cream or sugar..?” He said hesitantly,  
“We do, let me get them out,” Ford said and got up from his chair.  
He pulled all the coffee stuff out, and Steven adjusted his coffee to his liking. After he was done, he put everything back where he saw Ford pull them out from. 

His alarm goes off and he takes his meds with the hot coffee, he knows he probably shouldn’t but drinking anything else with his meds tastes better than taking it with water. He's never taken his meds with coffee, but 'how bad can it really be?' thought Steven.

Too many stimulants doesn't seem like it'll have a good effect there, Steven. 

He heard a thunk and “Crap!”  
Steven looks over at Ford who’s rubbing his arm,  
“Hey are you okay?”  
“Yeah I’m fine, I just ran into something last night and cut my arm” he says pulling down his sleeve show a bandaged up arm with blood seeping through the cotton,  
“It started healing, but I hit it on the counter right now on my way back here” gestured at the chair.  
“And I think it just snagged on the scab, hurts like hell.” 

Steven debated for a minute  
“ can I see it?” I may be able to help” 

Ford hardly doubted he could help, he probably needed stitches, but he didn’t trust hospitals or doctors. He unwrapped his arm, and it didn’t look right. Blood was mixed in with some white stuff, the skin around the cut looked extremely irritated. 

“This looks really bad...You didn’t want to go to the doctors? Looks like it’s infected..and needs stitches” Steven said while holding Ford’s hand to move around the arm so he can see it better. 

“Well, I don’t really trust doctors all too much…” he said while looking down at his arm. 

Steven was at war with his thoughts ‘help him, he’s old, he can get sick and die’, ‘if I help him, he’ll know I’m not fully human, he’ll treat me differently’, ‘he already treats me like he’s trying to study me without knowing anything weird about me’, ‘if you don’t help it’s not going to get better’. 

Steven couldn’t not help.

“Hey… um Ford, I can help you with your arm...but I need you to not tell anyone how I fix it, is that okay?” that didn’t sound suspicious at all. 

Ford just looked at the concerned look on Steven’s face, he didn’t look like he was joking or bluffing. 

“Uh..sure kid.” 

“Can you just rinse it off really quick…?” 

Ford was very confused where this was going, but he felt like Steven had no ill intentions. He washed off his arm. The already loose scab came off with the rest off the scab, leading to it bleeding more. He grabbed a napkin and dried off best he could. 

He sat back down and presented his arm to Steven, it was bleeding quite a bit, and Steven held Ford’s forearm. 

“Please… don’t tell anyone..and..try not to treat me differently after this” while Ford looked down at his arm, Steven quickly licked his lips, and Ford looked back up at him  
“Okay” 

Steven held onto Ford’s arm as he leaned down and kissed the clean bit of skin next to the cut.  
Ford, almost pulled his arm away, before Steven could kiss him but as soon as he kissed his arm he realized that his cut was healing, back and better than ever, he also felt a headache form as his eye started straining, and took off his glasses, and just looked at the high definition, his eyes could see better than ever, considering he’s been wearing glasses or have needed them most of his life, as long as he remembers. 

He looked at Steven's face, which was tense, waiting for a response. He wanted to ask a million questions but all that could come out was 

“What a miraculous ability you have”

Ford just sat there looking at his arm over and over, feeling his skin, That was real, his cut was healed, that could have taken weeks to heal all the way. Not to mention seeing without his glasses.  
He looked up at Steven who had a mix of relief and stress on his face. 

“None of my family knew I had that cut, they won’t think it’s weird that I’m healed.” he said trying to reassure Steven, but it didn’t help. “Though they may be confused from my lack of glasses…”  
Steven was waiting, he was preparing himself mentally for the questions Ford will ask him. He was trying really hard to stay calm while this whirlwind of thoughts rummaged through his mind. 

He saw Ford’s mouth moving but couldn’t understand what he was saying.  
He saw a concerned look on Ford’s face. It snapped him back in  
“What? Sorry I started zoning out”

“ Are you okay?” Ford asked gently. 

“I’m… (he was about to lie and say he was.) not..not really no...It’s been a while since I’ve done that for a...human…” he looked down “well except Connie” he said under his breath. 

“So..you’re not human?” He already had an answer due to the fact that Steven talks about human’s as a different entity than himself. 

“well...I am… half human… but I wasn’t really raised very human like… like i said before I have never gone to school...I lived in a van..legal documentation is finally NOW in progress after 17 years of existence. It was hard to prove that I was born here…"

“And..the other half..? If you don’t mind” he was trying to be sensitive, but his curiosity was killing him. 

“In general… an alien species called Gems…” 

“I think I’ve heard of them… I believe I’ve visited some of their ancient sites with Stanley, I wrote down some of the things that looked like words but I couldn’t understand any of it”

“Yeaahh...well… I need to stop talking about this right now...if you want..just write down your questions on a piece of paper, and I can write on that paper answering your questions, it's easier than talking.” Steven said getting up from his chair.

“I understand… thank you, for healing my arm” 

Steven gave a closed smile “No problem”. 

“Well, if you want, you can shower upstairs, breakfast will be ready in about an hour, maybe an hour and a half.”  
“Thanks..” and Steven grabbed his duffle bag and lugged it upstairs. He does still have his suitcase, but he left it in the car since it just has gifts and trinkets from his travels in it. 

Steven spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out the temperature and water handles of the shower. 

~~~~~

Steven had just gotten out of the shower, and finished drying himself, when he heard a knock on the bathroom door. He quickly wrapped the towel around his waist, not even thinking about his gem. 

He opens the door, and Mabel was there but she was looking away, yelling to someone in the house  
“Well you told me to tell him! So Steven, breakfast is- is...is…” her brain stopped working. She didn’t think he had opened the door yet, or that he would open it before he got dressed. She looked at his gentle face, he had a little bit of stubble coming in last night, but his face was baby smooth now. He had hair on his chest in all the right places, he was more muscular than he seemed through his clothes, and...  
“Well look at you, all shiny and sparkling”  
Sudden realization hit Steven, like a brick to the face.  
“Aha...w-what are you talking about?” he said as he slowly raised his towel, trying extremely hard not to have it slip in the process. 

“That big Gem you got there, super sparkly, you gotta let me borrow it sometime!!” 

“Yyeeeaaahhh totally...well uh, what was it you came to tell me?” 

“Oh right, breakfast is ready!” 

“Mmmmmkay thanks” and he quickly closed the door. 

He tried calming himself by trying to focus on something else.  
He checked his clock it had only been 15 mins since he was down stairs. Then he checked weather app on his phone, it should be pretty chilly today. He put on his pants, he put on a green and black flannel, and put a denim jacket over it with his star pin attached. He looked in his bag, and given his outfit, he felt like he should wear his brown fake leather boots. He was going to get real leather boots, but then he found out where leather came from, and he didn’t like that one bit. Why didn’t anyone tell him about leather? He gave himself one last look in the mirror, okay, the outfit looks good. Before he left the bathroom he took a picture of his outfit and sent it to Connie. She immediately texted back  
“Looking good ;) <3”  
Then followed by  
“I’m not fully awake, but I can still send you a picture, if you want?”  
“Yes pleaseee <3”  
She sent him a picture of her smiling tiredly, wearing her pajama top, which was a flowery silk button up that came with matching shorts. Steven bought them for her.  
“YOU’RE looking GOODER <3”  
“Aha Steven, you know that’s not a word ;P”  
“I know :3 I’ll talk to you later, send me a picture when you’re fully awake if you want”  
“Will do <3”  
Talking to Connie really calmed his nerves. but he really wanted to tell her about his nightmare, but he couldn't type it out...He'll call her later.  
Then he left the bathroom. 

The breakfast was normal enough, just pancakes with syrup. Ford didn’t say anything, and Dipper didn’t make any comments about last night, maybe he didn’t remember. Steven was just about done, and about to place his plate in the sink when- 

“Oh, did you guys know that Steven likes pink gems” steven almost dropped the plate but caught it, but his heart started pounding in his chest, but then it only got worse -

“What? Seriously?” Stan said with laughter in his voice. 

“Yeah he has this huge pink diamond on his belly button” and there goes the plate, falling right into the sink and breaking into pieces. 

Steven just stared at the shattered pieces of the Gem… I mean plate. He felt like he was sweating, his heart was going to break out of his chest this time, he was sure of it. Even though he knew Ford knew for sure...He didn’t really want to talk about it again so soon. 

Ford stood up “Well that sounds fun, Mabel, well, Steven you wanna go on a walk with me? We can take care of the dishes when we get back” 

“Yeah, sounds great” and he walked out of the door without looking away from the floor. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

They walked for a while, but it was just a big loop, and Ford led him back to the shack and went into the basement. No one saw them. 

While Steven was in the shower, Ford looked up the medications Steven was taking, and concern washed over him. The medications Steven was taking were antidepressants, and the dosage was pretty high considering that there are two different ones. Primarily dealing with major depressive disorder, anxiety, and post traumatic stress disorder. 

He did less research on Gem kind, just putting a bookmark in his journal where he wrote things down when he visited places and wrote out a few questions.

Steven was trying his best to maintain composure. The whole way down to the basement Steven was trying to count his breaths. 

Ford knew he didn’t know Steven that much, but he didn’t want Steven to feel like he was alone. He had only known Steven for probably a whole day, yet he felt like he connected in the sense that he too, got panic attacks on occasion, but right now wasn’t about him. He wanted to help Steven. 

“Steven, it’s okay, you need to calm down… she didn’t mean to upset you” 

“I know she didn’t… I just...remembered that I can’t just ignore a part of myself when I’m living with people...I haven’t lived with anyone but family… and my mind just blanks and things happen...I’m sorry…” he said all of that with the pauses, at a pretty fast speed.

“No it’s not your fault, you’re not used to it, it’s fine” 

“ I just…” steven started tearing up “I just wanted to be like the other kids…” Steven started pacing back and forth in front of Ford. He was already sweaty but now it was unbearable and took off his jacket and his flannel and had just a plain shirt under that. Ford noticed Steven wasn’t wearing shoes but turned around and noticed they were by the door for the basement. 

Ford realized that Steven started glowing pink. 

“An-an-and it’s not like I haven’t tried to make friends with other humans… but being on the road and only being places for such little time, it didn’t matter if I made friends, I have plenty of gem friends.. But they all saw me at my worst..and now they look at me like I’m some sort of-" he was still talking very fast until he said "broken puppy.” 

Steven was getting taller. Ford thought it was imagination, but it wasn’t, Steven was getting taller, much taller. 

“I keep trying to get better, I talk to a therapist twice a week, but when people find out what I am they just stop talking to me...or make assumptions and treat me like I’m some sort of…” he was going to say monster. But stopped himself. “Alien… and that I have no humanity… but I’ve fought for so much of my life just to save the Earth, and and and … I almost died so many times… I just...I can’t take it...they just treat me like those syfy movie aliens, harvesting humans and killing people… and I just… can’t deal with that again...” 

Steven’s eyes were full of tears, but Ford noticed that Steven’s eyes were pink with white diamonds as his pupils. 

However the moment Ford noticed Steven's eyes, Steven noticed that Ford looked really short, for someone who is around his height. Steven was about 8 feet tall now. 

He looked at his hands. 

“Oh no…” Steven said and looked back up at Ford, who looked like someone scared who was trying to put on a brave face, but not the selfish kind of fear… ‘he thinks i’ll hurt them’. 

He fell on to his knees, which shook the ground and cracked the ground under him. His hands hit the ground at a slower speed but still cracked the floor. 

“I-I’m sorry...I should never have come here…” Steven said facing the ground, Ford could see glowing tears dripping onto the ground. 

“Steven…” Ford said before taking a few steps towards Steven. “You’re their friend, and we care about you...we may not have known each other long, but I know you’re not a bad guy. You may have made mistakes, but who hasn’t? Now...try calming down…” Ford really couldn’t tell if Steven was a bad guy or not, but he said what he thought would help Steven calm down faster. He was guessing Steven had pretty destructive powers, and if he gets too overwhelmed it can be bad. He also didn’t really want to pressure Steven, he seemed like a good ally to have.

“Yeah...yeah okay….” he thought of Connie, and holding her, and his family telling him he’s got this. 

Ford put a hand on Steven’s shoulder and Steven soon shunk back to normal size and his glow disappeared. 

“Better…?” Ford asked, trying to be gentle. He thought ‘he’s a nice kid, I can’t just kick him out, I doubt he'll hurt the kids but thankfully he won't be sharing a room with them anymore...at least the chances of accidental harm will decrease’.

“Yeah...thanks...i’m sorry for ...destroying your floor…” 

“Dont worry about it, panic attacks happen to lot of people, even to the best of us.” 

They started to head back upstairs, and soon as they were back on the top, it seemed as though everyone was gone. 

“You want to start fixing up your room?” 

“Yeah...we can do that”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you like it? I'm hoping you liked it, I felt like him talking to Dipper about it immediately wouldn't seem right. but next chapter He'll have a good long chat with Dipper. 
> 
> Comment if you wanna, I'll respond :)


	4. Can we talk?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven gets settled into his room, and Aces a test. Then Dipper comes along to ask a few questions of his own.

As they head over to the room Ford once had the magic rug in, Steven wondered if it would just be a few boxes or if they had to spend all day cleaning it out. 

It was pretty empty. It had a bed and a desk and a dresser, there was only some boxes of old merchandise in there. 

Ford tried picking up a box, but it was heavier than he anticipated, and threw his back out. 

Steven gave a little lick on his index finger and tapped Ford’s arm “I got this”, and lifted all 3 of the boxes (Ford couldn’t even carry one).  
“Where do you need these?”   
“Oh there’s some storage in the back” on the way to leading Steven there, he made a mental note to write that down later. He also realized his back felt better.

After moving the boxes he put his flannel and jacket back on.

It didn’t take long to put Steven’s stuff in the room, it was pretty much all clothes, except a few small Items and picture frames. 

“You’ll be fine?” 

“Yeah, if you give me those question papers now I can answer them when you’re gone?” 

“Splendid.” 

Ford was gone for a few minutes and returned with a piece of paper with a list of questions written on it. 

“We’ll catch up later,” Ford said with a small smile as he closed the door.

Steven sat there alone with the paper and his belongings. He glanced over at the paper, then to his bag.   
His dream journal. He forgot to log last night's nightmare.

He flipped through all the used pages and found a clean one to start it off on. 

~I was lying in bed, Connie’s bed, and Connie was looking at me, worried, shaking me, but I couldn’t move, I just saw her face. Someone had broken into the house, and they were getting closer and closer, I heard their footsteps, Connie was panicking, trying to get me to get up, trying to get me to protect her, but I couldn’t move, I felt powerless. The door slammed open, and it was me, but...diamond me… he looked mad but happy about it… 

“Do you really think you can keep her safe? Look at her face, she’s terrified of me and I am YOU. She’s just with you because she feels like she has to.” 

Connie’s face was full of fear, looking at the person standing in the doorway. 

"You can never promise you can protect her, because you'll always have me and You'll always be a monster."   
He started to turn into a huge monster as soon as he stopped talking, destroying the house as he got bigger, the ceiling crumbled onto us.  
I heard Connie's bloodcurdling scream.

~ then the dream ended. 

Steven looked at the still blank piece of paper, he hadn't written anything down. 

He knew that he had to write something, he needed to talk to his therapist about this. 

Steven just wrote what the diamond Steven said. 

He stared at the page for a while, like 10 whole minutes of silence.   
He closed it and shoved it under his clothes in a drawer, he calmed himself down by thinking it was just a dream, it's not true.

He laid down and took a small dreamless nap, when he woke up he checked his phone for the time, and he was only asleep for half an hour.

He got up and decided he should start answering Ford's questions.

He sat at the desk with the paper, and *gasp* would you look at that, it’s double sided. On the top of the paper was a small flashcard size paper, and had the numbers of all the people who lived in the house, with the addition of Soos, who lived a block down with his wife, who was expecting a baby. Before Steven got to the questionnaire, he filled his phone with all the contacts. 

He grabbed the pen that was on top of the desk, geesh, there’s like 10 questions but they all seemed like essay questions, or at least some of Connie’s assignments that Steven asked about before.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Question 1. How do you heal? Is it kisses, or something else. Please explain.

\--Spit, it heals pretty much everything, inanimate objects, people, animals, plants… It occasionally brings plants to life, usually the big ones you can hollow out..gourds, pumpkins, watermelons… I’m not sure what else….Tears can heal things more severe than suffering…

Question 2. How are you half human? 

\--well, my dad is a human, my mom is a gem, she gave up her physical form for me to exist.

Question 3. What Gem do you have?

\--well Mabel was right, my gem is Pink Diamond.

Question 4. How much weight can you lift?

\--I’m not entirely sure

Question 5. How fast can you run? 

\--well i’ve never actually measured it. 

Question 6. Your mom’s family that you mentioned you moved in with, are they gems? Are they the same as your mom? 

\-- no, they’re Amethyst, Pearl and a fusion named Garnet. Gem 'Fusion' is a little hard to explain 

Question 7. Have you ever been to space?

\--a bunch *he doodled a few stars next to his answer*

Question 8. If yes to the previous question, have you ever been to the planet that gems are from?

\--yes, it looks like this *he tried to draw homeworld to the best of his ability, he checked his phone for a quick reference. That’ll do*

Question 9. If yes to the previous two questions, what kind of government do they have? (there was “that's redundant” written on the side of the question that was scribbled over) 

\--well, they used to have a dictatorship, they would make gems with a purpose and they didn’t have any autonomy, well if they tried to do what they wanted they would be punished. That’s actually why there was a rebellion. Well part of the reason. Many joined the rebellion for freedom. We dismantled the dictatorship a few years back, and my family, partner and I helped implement democracy.

Question 10. Numbers of family members to call in case of emergency?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Steven finished writing down the numbers and looked over his answers. 

‘I totally aced this test, good job me’ 

He feld kind of proud, not just that he answered all the questions, hopefully correctly, but that he was able to write about it and be fine. Well he did know writing would be easier than talking, just not this easy. 

He quickly looked away from the “test” when he heard a knock at his door. He just placed the test down on the desk and headed over to the door. 

Steven honestly thought it could have been anyone.

“Steven?”

“Hey Dipper, everything okay?” 

“I actually came here to ask you that...can I come in, I wanted to talk to you for a bit…”

“Uh..sure. Come in” 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Dipper looked around the room, it looked pretty bland, the only semalance of personality in the room was a few framed photos. 

One of him and a few...colorful looking women and a cat, one of the frames held 4 photos, one of Steven standing next to what looked like a rock band, one with a guy who looked like a pink space pirate, one of steven with 3 different colorful women where the one big one with rainbow hair was holding steven up in the air and the other two were trying to grab him, and one with 3 MORE colorful women who were holding something small in their hands. Lastly, there was a frame that held two photos standing upright, it was a picture of Steven with a girl who looked to be indian. She was wearing a blue dress, and Steven was wearing a pink button-up. It looked like they were dancing, they were both broadcasting huge smiles. The photo that shared the frame was a picture of someone who had long hair and tan skin, they had a pink button-up with what looked like a blue skirt smiling and making a heart with their hands. 

“Do you want to sit down?” Steven said from the bed, he was sitting on the farthest side. 

“Yeah...let’s sit..” 

Does Steven remember crying last night? Does he know that he glows? Maybe this is a misunderstanding, Dipper could bail right now, and it’ll only be a little awkward.

Dipper sat on the opposite end of the bed, looking down at his shoes. It’s not too late to bail. 

“Steven...are you okay?” 

“Why do you ask?” Steven said with a flatness to his voice, like he already knew the answer.

“Well...last night...you were crying...I tried helping but...It seems to have been bad...you...you were glowing pink...and then at breakfast Mabel said something that worried you...I’m not mad or anything...I’m just concerned… and curious if I’m being honest” 

“Oh…” 

“I’m not trying to pressure you to talk about what happened...or your feelings...I just… wanted to know if you were okay, and if I could help or something…” he got really quiet with this last part “and I wanted to know what you are…”

Even though it was under Dipper’s breath, and hardly a whisper, it hit his eardrum like a wailing stone.   
He knew he couldn’t deny it at this point, Dipper’s seen him glowing pink, and he will be living with them for a bit…   
He felt like he was trapped in a corner. He also knew he could leave if he wanted to. He didn’t want to leave though, despite only knowing them for a short amount of time, he really had gotten to like them. 

Steven sat silently for a bit, staring at a random spot on the floor, he was weighing his options, but he finally gave in to the 'tell Dipper' side. 

“I...I’ll tell you...I can tell you everything...but can you try not to treat me differently..?” 

Dipper nodded. Steven looked into his eyes and didn’t feel any kind of deceit. Dipper wasn’t lying, he liked Steven, not in a romantic way or anything, but he hasn’t really made any friends while he’s been here for the summer. Mabel had Candy and Gretta when she wanted to hang out with them. Dipper thought maybe Windy was his friend but it just made him cringe when he looked back at how desperate he was for her to like him. Last few years he’s just been trying to fill that journal of his, and hanging out with his Great Uncle Ford doing research, but he hasn't made any friends his age. Sure, he had to share Steven as a friend with Mabel, but he felt like Steven wasn’t going to ditch him to go hang out with JUST Mabel and bye bye Dipper. 

“okay...so..I’m not all human...I’m half Gem on my mom’s side..Gems are an alien race that came to Earth thousands of years ago. And Mabel was kind of spot on...I’m half Pink Diamond… but about a year ago I went to the doctors for the first time and...kind of reflect on everything that’s happened...years of my life people were trying to kill me...many were just trying to kill me because of what my mom did...and my family always made me feel like I had to live up to her, and made me feel bad that she wasn’t around anymore because of me… at least that was until it came out who she really was and... then...what am I supposed to be then?...and I’m not okay from it..but I’m working on it..and stuff that happened about a year ago still stresses me out..I get really bad panic attacks and a few times I’ve just passed out from the stress..but...they went down and I didn’t get them as much these last few months…I’m sorry I lied...or at least wasn’t honest... I just wanted to act like a human and be treated like a human, y’know?...not like I’m some weird person...who’s going to hurt them...” 

Steven doesn’t really know why he said all of that. Part of him felt like Dipper really cared about him considering he was comforting him just that night and was holding him when he woke up. He said it pretty fast but he kept his composure the whole time, which was surprising to him. His therapist said that if opening up about his feelings to friends and family ever got hard, pretend like you’re just saying your thoughts out loud to no one, but let them help. He doesn’t need to solve every problem or deal with his feelings by himself. 

Dipper just sat there silent for a bit. He was thinking of everything Steven just said. He was also debating saying something, he wanted to say it but no words came out when he tried.SO he went back to thinking about what Steven said   
‘he’s half alien, it was a specific type of alien called Pink Diamond… of a species..called Gems? Probably has a calendar where people trying to kill him was a common recurrence. Like ‘look it’s tuesday, you know what that means fend for my life’ and Anxiety attacks.. That's something he can relate to… let’s go with that. 

“Do you..know what triggers your panic attacks?”

“I’m not really sure what all of them are...I do know two though… things that s.h.a.t.t.e.r. when they break...like glass..rocks...plates…. The word itself honestly… and ...people trying to pull out my gem...I don’t like that one bit” Steven wondered if that’s all that Dipper was going to ask about. He got an idea. He got up and headed over to the desk to grab the “test”. 

“Here” he said while handing over the paper to Dipper.   
“Your...uh..grunkle? Ford asked a few questions and I wrote down the answers. You can read them if you want, but I need to get it to your Great Uncle sometime today, at least before I forget to do it. 

Dipper looked down at the paper.   
“Oh..okay..thanks..” Dipper said as he quietly started to stand up from the bed.   
“If you have additional questions, you can write them down for me…? Doing this” steven gestured to the paper “I found it easier to talk about it. You can show Mabel if you want...I just...can’t keep talking about it today… you get me? It’s a drain.” 

“Yeah I get it, hey uh, Mabel and I are going to sit out in the woods later if you wanna join us? We’re meeting up with some of her friends and having a bonfire. Eat smores and such?” he looked at Steven’s face who looked a little uneasy after he said ‘woods’, like ‘we’re going to the middle of the woods, all alone’ he reiterated “And not like woods woods, like just outside the shack...for a bonfire.” 

“Yeah sounds fun, Dipper”

Dipper walked out of the room, leaving Steven alone.

Steven felt kind of relieved talking to Dipper, then he checked the time on his phone

“Ah, it’s almost therapy O’clock” 

He said it light heartedly but he knew what he had to talk about wasn’t going to be easy.

He swiped through pictures on his phone while he waited for the session to start. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Dipper walked out of the room with a mixture of feelings, he felt relieved that he didn’t imagine Steven glowing, he felt hesitant about telling Mabel. But can he really trust Steven? He is half alien.

He shook that thought, ‘that’s specist, Dipper, you’re better than that, I don’t think I’d like it, if I met a centaur or something and they didn’t trust me just because I was a human.

Plus, he didn’t seem like a threat, a threat wouldn’t show themself so vulnerable. Let alone, accept comfort.   
Did I fall asleep in his arms...? I don’t remember actually falling asleep.’ he paused his thoughts. ‘Maybe bringing it up would make things awkward...I probably shouldn’t say anything about it, unless he asks about it.’ he just shook his head like it’ll remove the thought and just tried to focus on the bonfire.

Dipper started to stress out a little because he wasn’t even planning on going to the bonfire in the first place. However, now he HAS to go, he can’t invite someone to something and then not go. 

He made his way on the stairs, gripping the paper in his hand, he hadn't read the answers yet, but he had an idea what it’ll say since Steven talked to him.   
He came into the room and flopped himself on the bed. Mabel wasn’t in the room, Dipper tried wondering where she could have gone when he remembered 

‘Oh I think I remember she said she was going to drive to the store and get food for the bonfire.’ 

“Maybe Grunkle Stan went with her’. 

He sat on the bed and opened his journal, and placed the “test” paper on the side opposite to where he was planning on writing. 

He started by drawing a picture of Steven, it helped that he had a picture he drew of Steven from the night before in the other sketch book, for reference. 

‘Okay.. here we go’ 

He wrote on the top of the page ‘Steven Universe, Human-Gem Hybrid’   
In small words under it ‘Pink Diamond/human’

He wrote extensively on Steven’s healing ability and homeworld. He tried copying Steven’s drawing of homeworld, he tried his best. He drew it then immediately started to doubt he drew it correct. 

‘That planet can’t really be that broken up, can it?’ 

He didn’t touch on writing about Steven’s strength or speed since he wanted to know if there was an actual answer. He couldn’t just write, he’s strong and can probably run fast. He also thought it would be funny to write that.

“That’s a nice drawing of Steven you got there” 

Dipper nearly jumped out of his skin. 

“Ah, Mabel, don’t scare me like that, and what are you doing back so soon?” 

She let out a small huff of a stifled laugh, and gestured to the window.

“What do you mean soon? We’ve been gone for hours” 

Dipper just now realized that the sun was setting. Mabel looked back at her twin’s face, then at the book.

“So, why are you drawing Steven and writing about him in your journal, I thought you only did that with weird things, are you coming up with conspiracies again?” 

“What? Oh, this? No. Actually, can we talk about something? and I need you to take this seriously.”

“Uh sure Dipper” 

“I’m going to show you something, and I need you to promise me that you won’t go around treating Steven differently, or tell anyone else about it, like not even your friends”

“Yeah you nerd, I promise.”

He showed her his journal entry, she scanned over it, and was about to say something he handed over the “test” Steven filled out.   
“And before you doubt me, this is a questionnaire that Great Uncle Ford wrote out for Steven to answer, and Steven wrote these answers” he said as he used his index fingers to slide over the words Steven wrote. 

“So...you’re saying...he’s half alien… and he confirmed it...and you believed him?”

“Well it wasn’t just the answers he wrote that I’ve seen for proof… he” he stopped himself, he didn’t really want to tell Mabel he woke up to Steven crying and glowing pink, just the glowing pink part “heeee.. Glows pink. I’ve seen it. You also saw his gem this morning, right?” 

“Yeah? I didn’t think he was an alien because of it but...wow. Okay. and I can’t tell my friends?” 

“No” he looked at her face, she looked a little bummed but seemed to get it.   
“OH, I also invited him to the bonfire tonight”

“Oh cool! I was thinking of doing that, but I was scared to ask him since it seemed like he was upset with me this morning” 

“Well...he was just overwhelmed, but he’s okay now” 

“Okay, well I just came up here to ask if you wanted to help set up the bonfire area? My friends will be here soon. Do you think Steven would want to help?” 

“Maybe? It doesn’t hurt to ask” 

“Okay! Well go ask him!” she said as she went down the stairs “oh and I invited Wendy, kay byeeee”.

“Now I really don’t want to go” with a groan he gets up and starts to head down to Steven’s room. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Maybe it was because he was stuck in his thoughts or just not paying attention, but Steven literally walks into Stan, making them both stumble a bit and Stan almost spilt water. It was a big cold thermos that looked like it was decorated by Mabel with Stickers of smiley faces and sparkly letters that spelt “S T A N”.

Stan’s first instinct was to say ‘watch where you’re going’ but he was actually looking for Steven. 

“Geeze kid, you okay?”

“Yeah?” 

“Okay well…” he scratched the back of his neck, then cleared his throat.  
“Work starts tomorrow, since it’s your first day, it’ll only be from 10-2, sound good?”

Steven nodded. “Yeah, sounds good”

“Wendy will be there to train you for the first hour”

“Okay-”

Dipper walked over to where they were standing 

“Hey Steven, hope I’m not interrupting?” he looked back and forth between Steven and his Grunkle Stan who looked uncomfortable.

“No no, I was getting going anyway” Stan said as he walked away. He wanted to say more to Steven but he couldn’t manage the words to show his concern. 

“So Steven, Mabel and I are going to get everything together for the bonfire, we wanted to know if you wanted to help, you don’t have to if you don’t want to, just wondering.” 

“What kind of things do you need help with?”

“Well we were going to grab some wood from the side of the house and bring it over to the fire pit, pull out a table, and bring the food out….Oh and starting the fire of course”

Steven let out a small chuckle 

“Well I can grab the firewood, it wouldn’t really be hard for me”

~~~~~~~~~~

Steven grabbed a lot more firewood than Dipper or Mabel were anticipating, in one trip even. 

By the time Steven got back with all the fire wood, Dipper had already pulled out the table, and Mabel was just about done getting all the food out.

This should be fun, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonfires sound fun, absolutley nothing weird will happen. nope. nada. Totally a normal bonfire with just some teens. totally only teens. well and some adults. but just humans. only humans. nothing weird. 
> 
> right?
> 
> totally. 
> 
> this isn't suspicious at all.


	5. Not A Boring, Quiet Town After All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven has a revalation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's kind of a short chapter.

Thanks to the ‘Nevermind All That Act’ no one talked about anything that happened a few summers back. Along with that act, was a subjection that all the citizens knew about and they all thought it was what’s best.

“Non-residents of Gravity Falls must abide by a curfew of 6pm, or whenever sundown is. All non-citizens must be in doors once the curfew comes. All citizens of Gravity Falls must continue to abide by the ‘NeverMind All That Act’. If you want to keep your business open for special residents, you may. Special residents curfew is at sunrise.” 

Also throughout the town were yellow square signs that said “sun’s going down? Get inside. In accordance with Gravity Falls Law”. 

To make sure of this Gravity Falls police would drive through town on a megaphone soon before sundown and threaten anyone who they don’t recognize on the streets that they can and will throw them in prison. 

They would only patrol the main streets, since that’s where most people were. They didn’t bother the Mystery Shack. 

~~~~~~~~

Steven had absolutely no idea that this law existed, they didn’t tell him. SO far, he just thought this was a small town, a nice place to relax. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mabel and Dipper changed their outfits before the bonfire started.  
‘They probably showered while I was in my room’ Steven thought to himself. Kind of wondering why he didn’t notice before. Mabel was wearing a red speckled blouse topped with a short black biker jacket, she had black skinny jeans and biker boots on. Her hair was in a ponytail, and you could see big white daisy earrings. Looking pretty cool there Mabel. Dipper was sporting black pants, his hiking boots still, a black hoodie with some writing, shadow people?, and from a distance Steven only saw the word ‘beans’. On top of that he wore a brown leather jacket. The hood of his hoodie outside of course. 

Right before the sun set, everyone showed up.They parked in the lot, and just walked over to the fire, which was right next to the Mystery Shack. 

Mabel tapped a marshmallow skewer against a rock.   
(not really any forks and glass stemware around)

“I’m so glad you all could make it!” Mabel said as everyone sat by the fireplace.   
“I was sure everyone invited would come, but that doesn’t mean I’m not happy to see all your faces!” She said arms out gesturing to everyone there.  
“eehhh they’ll probably just come later if anything” she said with a shrug.   
“Anyway, I planned this bonfire, just for the hell of it, you know? It’s summer! Let’s have funnn” she said with a little shaky shaky dance motion.

“But actually now, there’s a better occasion! We have a new house mate for the summer! Everyone say hi to Steeeeeven Universsse” she said his name like wrestling announcer. 

Steven generally likes parties. He likes hanging out in big crowds, usually. But for the last year Steven hasn’t really been the center of attention. He liked being a part of it, not what everyone was focused on. He got tense with everyone’s eyes on him so suddenly. 

“H-hey everyone, happy to join you all” he tried his best to sound as convincing as he could be. 

They all waved, and then went back to not all focusing him at the same time, he relaxed again. 

A girl with red hair and a hoodie that said “go away” on it headed over and sat next to Steven.

“So you’re Steven, huh?”   
“Yeah?”   
“I’m Wendy! I got a call this morning about training you tomorrow” She said as she put out a hand for him to shake. 

He shook her hand with a smile.   
“You like living with the Pines’?” 

“Aha, well it’s only my second day, I’ve spent one night there, and so far, I’ve liked it”

“Has Mabel tried flirting with you yet?” she said with a laugh. 

“Aha..yeeaahh, but it’s fine, she stopped, I told her I’m in a loving committed relationship, and she respected that” he said with an awkward smile. 

“That’s nice of her… are you actually in a relationship or did you just say that so Mabel stopped flirting?” Part of her was kinda hoping that he was single. Steven being broad shouldered, tall, and looked older than the twins, she really thought he was older. She thought he was pretty cute, especially with the light of the fire on his face. 

“Yeah, actually, here” he pulled out his phone and showed Wendy a picture of him and Connie. 

They continue talking about Connie, then talk briefly on Robbie, and college and school, and such and such. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

‘What are they talking about? Why is she smiling so much with him, doesn’t he have a girlfriend?’ 

Despite Dipper knowing his chance is over, or pretty sure. He can’t help but feel a little jealous. He doesn’t want to be jealous. He hasn't seen Wendy that much lately since she started school, she’s taking summer courses so they were more time consuming and dense. She doesn’t look much different now, it’s not like she’s less attractive. 

Dipper was just standing next to a tree, away from the party. He should go over there, he did invite Steven after all. He had his back to the woods, what did he have to be scared of? They became friends with most of the creatures in the forest. Most of them.

“Why don’t you go over there and talk to her?”

The sudden low voice behind him caught him off guard. He looked behind him quickly but was quickly relieved.

“I can’t just do that Chutzpar, She’s 20 now, I shouldn’t really try until I’m 18”

“Well that’s soon isn’t it, and you don’t have to try right now, but you should try just talking to her, you are a man, aren’t you?” 

“W-well yeah”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ 

Steven’s conversation with Wendy was coming to a lull when he looked over and saw a tiny bearded man, who was sitting on a log with a marshmallow skewer toasting up a marshmallow chatting up with one of Mabel’s friends, he thought it was odd, he didn’t want to stare, but he couldn’t look away.

“Oh that’s just Jason”

“Jason?” 

“The Gnome, right?”

“Gnome?” 

“Yeah, I feel like there’s an echo here, buddy” 

“Um...could you excuse me?” 

“Yeah go ahead”

He was like ‘ahaahhh, nope’ and went inside the house, Mabel was inside looking in one of the pantries. 

“Oh hey Steven, all partied out?” 

“ah...no...um.... “ 

“C’mon, don't be such a party pooper, lets go back out” she said as she grabbed his arm and pulled him outside.

As he walked back outside he noticed that there were more people.

People?

Dipper was sitting next to Wendy with a huge beast sitting on his other side. 

That wasn’t a gem. Garnet or Pearl would have said something about Gems being here if there was. They were still going on missions to find more corrupted gems to heal them...Maybe they were? but..they're talking...

A low voice reached Steven’s ears, something was right out of his field of vision. 

“Mabel” the low voice said.

“Yeah?” didn’t seem to have a single concern.

Steven turned and saw a large bear standing not 3 feet away. 

Bear? 

Bears? 

No, just a Bear, one bear, just, with lots of heads. 

“I was wondering if you had any more juice? SOMEBODY drank all of it” he said as he glared over to the bonfire area. 

Steven was frozen, 'Mabel is just fine with this? what's going on?' 

“Sure thing I’ll be right back” Leaving Steven alone with the Multi-Bear. Who just looked down at Steven, and Steven looked at it’s eyes, and then their other eyes, and their other eyes, and back up at the top one. 

“Hello” the multi-bear said with a smile.

“Hi” his voice was high, why are you being so awkward Steven?

There was silence between the two, this is really awkward, Steven’s just staring at him. 

“Ookay well I’m going to sit down now” he said it like he was just trying to get out of this situation. 

Steven looked over to the bonfire, and there were five guys who all looked the same. Quintuplets exist, that isn’t too weird. There were more little men now then before. The door opened back up, and some more creatures he didn't recognize...

The door opened and Mabel was back out with a gallon of juice.

“Mabel, what the hell is going on?”

Why did Steven look so concerned?

“Aha what do you mean?” which resulted in Steven just gesturing out to the crowd. 

Mabel looked out to the crowd, then back at Steven ‘oh’.

“Steven, these are our friends...they’re kind of different than most people. But they’re nice, now they are at least” she said with a reassuring smile “well the Gnomes did try taking me and forcing me to be their queen when I was 12…” she said under her breath, and Steven’s eyes just widens   
“What??”  
“No don’t worry about it, everything is all cool, they’re nice, they’re our friends!.... Although there still might be things in the forest that might still want to kill and eat us… and we don’t really know all that’s out there.....but it’s okay! We’re all cool, see?” Mabel is doing a horrible job reassuring Steven.   
“I’m going to go inside... “

“Steven, it’s okay, really,” she said it a little too late since he was already inside. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He didn’t really know what to think. Except his mind was racing. There was a cacophony of thoughts going through his mind, he couldn’t focus. 

He just wanted to have a calm, relaxing normal human summer. In a boring city. He didn’t want anything weird, just calm relaxing, human summer. He decided to pull out his phone and start dialing. 

“Hello?”

“Connie! I’m so glad you answered” 

“Are you okay?

“I-I don’t know.…I might just be overthinking...I just...feel so confused..” 

“Well...try calming down first, and think about it one thing at a time, don’t try to think of everything at once”

“Okay…” 

“Was something trying to hurt you?”

“No…” 

“Do you feel safe?” 

“… I feel safe right now... I'm in my room...” 

“Okay, that’s good, then just, stay in your room for now until you do feel safe to leave. Do you want me to come over tonight?” 

“Yeah..maybe…I'll let you know, but I’m gunna go for now, I love you”

“I love you too Steven”  
*Click*

He laid in bed for a few minutes, just staring at the ceiling in silence, with only

“Steven?” it was Mabel on the other side of the door.

“Hey buddy, can we come in?” Dipper’s voice came through the door as well. 

He stayed silent, but got up and opened the door. His face was hard to read, it looked like he was tired, stressed, and empty. Soon as he opened the door, he just sat back down at the edge of his bed.

“Heeey Stevvooo… you doing all right?” Mabel was trying to sound enthusiastic in the beginning but it faded, since she really wasn’t feeling it. 

“No? Not really, I feel like there was some tidbit of information that someone should have told me, I mean, I get I’M not normal but...I had no idea that all this was......I-I just thought this was a quiet town…” 

“Yeah,” Dipper said as he sat down next to Steven, Journal in hand. He handed it to Steven, who took it in his hand, looked at it, then up at Dipper.

“I think we have some explaining to do…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO, I had to rewrite this chapter. It would have posted this morning, but I rewrote it :/ It started getting messed up and I didn't really want that to happen after rereading. it got dark. angsty. and sad. Lots of Steven Anxiety and breakdown. I can post the chapter as an alternate chapter 5 if you want, but it will not be cannon in this story and never happened. Just what could have happened. Let me know if you wanna feel bad and I can post it.


	6. Let Go of Your Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven learns more about Gravity Falls, they'll explaing everything to him..right?  
> Steven accidently dream hops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW. there is talk of panic attack and dissociation. 
> 
> if you want to skip the description of the instance then stop at  
> "got up to get a cup of water" and come back at "At this point"

“When we first visited Gravity falls, Mabel and I thought we were going to just have a boring summer with our Grunkle Stan, but then I found a journal, not much different than this one. It was written by my Great Uncle Ford, but at the time I didn’t even know I had a Great Uncle Ford. well I thought Grunkle Stan was “Grunkle Stanford”, but that's because Ford went missing and Grunkle Stan kind of just took over the house.” 

Steven just raises an eyebrow, a little confused with the use of all the Stans, Stanley and Stanford, and Stan and Ford. 

“And in the journal were entries of all the creatures he had run into in Gravity Falls, the book was pretty full, and I feel like I am still nowhere close to where he was, in terms of information collected. I mean I only have this one and he had 3 before we...threw them in the bottomless pit”

“A bottomless pit?” Steven pulled his hand up to his face and held his chin with a few fingers over his mouth. 

“Yeah, well, kind of bottomless, they could honestly end up anywhere.” Dipper said with a shrug.

“And you’re okay with that? Anyone having them?” 

“Well..the chances of them all ending up in the same place is unlikely, and the only thing that wanted them is...well gone.” Dipper said while adjusting his view to look at the floor.  
“Our first summer here was weird...until it got really bad…” when dipper said this mabel rubbed her arm while hugging herself. 

It’s still hard to talk about.

“But the point is… the big bad threat is gone, most of the creatures now are friends or at least friendly, or friendlier than they were before everything happened. Over the years, we’ve made some really good bonds, and we try catching up every summer, it’s fun. I’m sure they’ll be happy to meet you, whenever you’re comfortable with meeting THEM.” Dipper ended it with a reassuring smile. 

“I’d like that...but maybe not tonight. I actually am feeling tired.”

“Alright well, we’ll let you sleep” Dipper gets off the bed, Steven holds out the journal to hand it back.  
“It’s okay, you can take your time and go through it, I put some notes in there on who is friendly, so it won’t alarm you if you see them walking around in the woods”

“Thanks..” he pulled his arm back and set the book on his lap.  
“And thanks for telling me...I really appreciate it...I’m sorry if I was rude...and for skipping out on the rest of the party.” he looked down at the journal. He felt like he hurt Mabel’s feelings.

“Don’t worry about friend-o, I could have sworn we told you about this, but I guess we didn’t” 

“Well, good night” 

“Night Steven” “Nighty Night!” , and they leave shutting the door.  
Steven sits in his bed for a while, flipping through the pages of the journal. He wasn’t really reading anything but was looking at all the faces and shapes of all the creatures. Half of the creatures were drawn out, the other half were small photographs that were taped onto the page. He found a picture of what he now discovered is called the “Multi-bear”, one where he looked like a ferocious bear, and another with him smiling and holding up a poster on a band called… BABBA? It sounded familiar. Flipped some more and saw a picture of Dipper and the huge beast known as a Manotaur, the one in the picture with Dipper is called Chutzpar. Hmm. there was another picture of all of them in what Dipper wrote as “man cave”. 

‘Man cave? A cave of men? Are they all guys? Or is it just a term for their species, why did Dipper write man cave like it was funny? Is it an inside joke?’ 

Steven, being a kid who was raised in a van with his dad, and then moved into the temple with the gems, had absolutely no idea what a “man cave” could possibly be. 

‘That's not very fair to those who aren’t men...unless it’s really just a reference to their species being called MAN otaur.’ he decided to drop the topic, it was getting too confusing. He made a mental note to ask about it later. 

All of this magical stuff kind of reminded him of some books he read with Connie.  
‘Oh connie would love to hear about this...did they say I could say anything to anyone about it? I don’t remember, I’ll wait and get a confirmation tomorrow, probably after work.’

He reached the page about him. Hmmm. okay. It seems Dipper wrote out Steven’s answers in a form that includes the question that prompted such an answer. Okay. he saw a nice drawing of himself, smiling, in the same clothes he wore when he first got here. ‘Did he draw me when I was sitting with Mabel? Well...that could explain why he was so quiet...but he put it in here… did he suspect? Maybe he drew it after… mmm’. He saw a picture of Homeworld that Dipper drew, some notes Steven noticed was “how did it break?” under the drawing of the planet, and a small note on the bottom saying “check if he’s doing okay”. ‘Wonder when he wrote this…’

He reached the end, just blank paper. That's the end Steven, put the book down, and sleep. 

He couldn’t help himself, maybe it was childish, but it was very satisfying. He held the book and flipped the pages really fast so it made a zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz sound. He did it again but not as fast, and saw something. 

Something written toward the end of the book. He flipped the book open to the page, it was only one word, that was scribbled out, but it was obvious what word it was, Steven wondered ‘why would he scribble that? It’s just a boring old name, maybe it was too boring to write about’

‘I mean all it says is BILL’. 

Steven shrugged it off, got off of the bed, and changed into pajamas, brushed his teeth, then laid in bed. He called Connie really quick before he fell asleep, he tried texting but his eyes felt heavy. 

“Mmmhello?” Connie sounded very tired. She had already fallen asleep.  
“I just wanted to call and tell you i’m feeling better, you don’t need to rush here..”  
“Oh okay...I can still come if you want me to…”  
“You sound like you’re half asleep as it is, hun, I love you, go back to sleep”  
“I love you tooo darrrrling….nighty night night niight” her words are slurring.  
*click* 

Steven relaxed, and drifted into a nice deep sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dipper hadn’t really thought of Bill lately, he didn’t really have many concerns in terms of Bill. He’s gone, it’s fine, they erased him. He was gone, right? Then why was he feeling this pain in his chest. Maybe it’s the binder, and everything is fine. It’s probably just cause they talked about their first summer with Steven, Bill was a big part of that Summer. Seriously. 

‘Why would I even need to tell Steven? Bill’s gone, he’s not a threat, and besides we were trying to calm him down, telling him the bad that happened isn’t going to help. It’s all over, Steven shouldn’t have to worry...I should stop worrying.’

‘Mabel is already fast asleep, Steven’s probably been asleep for a while, I need to go to sleep, I need to relax’

He laid on his back, and focused on turning a technique of trying to turn off every bit of your body starting at the toes, but even when he got to the end, he couldn’t sleep. He felt like someone was watching him through the window, so he decided to go down stairs, theirs less pig smell, that’s for sure. Even though it was just an armchair, sometimes it was more comforting than a bed, especially when he laid sideways with his legs hanging over one of the arms of the couch. It was like a big person was holding him like a baby.  
But he’d never admit that that was why he liked laying like that on the couch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steven had been asleep for a while, he felt relaxed, he was having a dream that he was…

Outside the shack? 

“Oh hey Dipper, There you are”

“Whatup duude” 

They were walking to Dipper who had a weird smile on his face. 

“Soos, Wendy, HELP ME” the ‘help me’ echoed in Steven’s ears. His stomach dropped when he realized that it was Dipper's voice.  
But Dipper was standing right there, wasn’t he? And he didn’t even open his mouth…  
Steven was so caught up in thought he missed the small whispers of Dippers voice drifting in the air until.

“And I’m gunna stop you” He heard Dipper’s voice clearly again.  
“But how can you stop me? If you don’t exist?” Laughter panged in Steven’s ears, it felt like it was engulfing him. Not Dippers, not Wendy's and not Soos’ laughter, but...then who’s?

But then suddenly. 

Steven was awake. 

‘What a weird dream....but...was it...Dipper’s dream…? Memory…? Maybe I should check up on him in the morning’

Steven was now fully awake, he tried laying back down, but he couldn’t sleep. His eyes didn’t even feel heavy. 

He checked the time, it was 3 am. He sighed, and got up to get a cup of water. 

When he was in the kitchen he heard...fast heavy breathing? 

Steven heads out into the living room. Dipper was sitting on the couch, his legs over the arm of the chair. Steven walked in front of the couch, there were tears streaming from Dippers face. Dipper didn’t seem to notice Steven, or notice anything, his eyes were open but just staring out at a point on the wall. He held both hands at his temples, slightly shielding the sides of his eyes. There were tears dripping down off of his face, Steven was kind of frozen. Other than his breathing, Dipper wasn’t making any other noise, no sobbing or choking on tears. It was like he dissociated. 

“Dipper, are you okay?” Steven said as he slowly approached Dipper. 

No response. 

“Dipper, it’s Steven..” 

No response. 

Steven touched Dipper's shoulder. Gently trying to get his attention. 

No response. 

Steven didn’t really know what to do, he’s never encountered someone who dissociated. He’s been able to talk people through the pain, and get them to calm down. Dipper didn’t seem to be paying attention at all. At least, not responsive. 

Dipper comforted Steven, but Steven was aware of his surroundings. 

“Can I hold you?” 

No response. 

At this point, Steven couldn’t just not do anything. He scooped him up, and held Dipper across in his arms. He pulled his arm up to hold Dipper’s head against his chest.  
‘Maybe hearing a constant thumping of my heart could help… I don’t know.’  
Steven carried Dipper all the way up the stairs to Mabel, and since his arms were full, he just gently poked her with his foot. 

“Mabel” Steven whispered in the form of a shout. “Mabel” 

He hit her again with his foot (not hard or anything) 

“Stop Waddles, you know eating that is bad for you,” said Mabel in her sleep.  
He made a few more attempts, but she wouldn’t budge. He glanced over at Dipper’s bed, then back at Dipper, no improvements. Well maybe, he did stop crying and his breathing slowed down, but his breaths were too heavy and not as slow as it should be. But he couldn’t just put him in bed and leave.

He started heading back down stairs, maybe Ford will be able to help. He got down stairs and saw...Ford?

“Geeze kid is everything okay? I heard running going up and down the stairs” Stan said as Steven had gotten closer.

“No… I don’t think so, he looks like he’s having a panic attack and dissociating...I’ve tried calming him down, and all that’s happened is that his breathing slowed down.” 

“His breathing sounds pretty fast right now…” His voice sounded like it cracked, like he was trying not to cry. He looked pained to see Dipper this way.

“I don’t know what to do, I came downstairs to get water and he was on the couch. Like this...well he was worse before, but he still hasn’t said anything...what do we do…?” 

Stan had only seen Dipper like this several times, it was always because he was thinking of Bill. He loves Dipper, it hurts him so much to see him like this. 

“I have an idea, come with me.” He said as he led Steven to his room, a room Steven had never seen. He gestured towards the bed for Steven to lay him down. He sat him down and Stan tried straightening him out so that he was laying down. 

Stan frantically looked around the room for something, anything that could help Dipper, and Steven kind of stood frozen. Stan search had failed. Time for some good old fashioned comfort. 

He lifted Dipper’s head up a bit and sat underneath so that Dipper’s head was resting on his lap. He then started to brush Dipper’s hair with his fingers. And occasionally over his forehead and temples. Steven leaned against a wall, slid down, and just sat on the floor, ‘i hope this helps’ 

Steven watched as Dipper’s breathing calmed down, and he slowly fell asleep. Steven and Stan let out a relieved sigh at the same time. Okay, hopefully no more nightmares, at least for tonight. 

Stan was still brushing Dipper’s hair, and without looking up he asked 

“Do you know what triggered it…?” This time, Steven knew Stan was really trying not to cry. 

“I don’t know…” Steven said from the floor and looking up at Stan. 

“Did...did he talk at all about his first summer here?...recently..?” 

“Yeah..he did actually…” 

“So you know about Bill?” 

Steven thought back at the journal, it was only written once, but scribbled over.

“I don’t...they only talked about the creatures…” 

“well...Bill he...He’s not from here… he’s a dream demon...he can go into people’s mind, see their dreams, know their thoughts, their memories…” 

Now Steven didn’t want to say anything about the fact he too..can do that…  
“He took over the whole town… tried killing everyone...released other demon things from his world..in here…there’s a barrier that kept them in the town but….that meant we were stuck….” 

Steven stayed silent, he knew Stan was still talking…

“Before all that ...Bill had...possessed Dipper’s body, made him a puppet...tried getting the journal...Dipper was there, but he could only watch…..he once told me he felt so powerless...that he’ll never come back...

Mabel and Dipper went through a lot...and I didn’t really find out until after everything happened...we finally got rid of Bill by letting him into my mind...and then they wiped all my memories…. They did a few things and I got my memories back… and Bill’s gone now but....Dipper’s still messed up about it…” Stan finally looked up at Steven. He had tears on his cheeks, he tried wiping them before Steven could notice, but he already did.

“Thanks for.. Trying to help him… last time someone his age saw him like this well..they told the whole school that they saw Dipper crying like a baby on the floor…said he was crying like a little...girl…... he told me about it the summer after that school year...He had to make us promise not to go to the school and look for that good for nothing piece of garbage..” a part of Stan felt kind of good about that fact that telling Steven all this prompted Steven to glare with anger and frustration. 

“I’m happy he’s got a friend like you.. Him and Mabel. You’re a good kid Steven” 

“Thanks Stan…” he started walking to the door, “Do you want me to take him back to bed?” 

“yeah..I’m sure he’ll appreciate that..” 

Steven walked over and scooped up Dipper, before Steven could leave Stan called out 

“Hey steven” Steven turned back around  
“Yeah?” 

“Try not talking about the stuff I just told you around those kids… It gets overwhelming for them.” 

“I understand...I’ve gone through stuff too… well… good night” He didn’t know why he said that… but he left before Stan could ask what he meant. 

After placing Dipper in his bed upstairs, Steven went down to his room, that tiredness was finally hitting him. Today was exhausting, but mostly emotionally exhausting. He slithered under his sheets, and as soon as his head hit the pillow,

he was out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stan the man is trying the best that he can. 
> 
> (it's just a dream, a memory, Bill is not back)
> 
> (last day of spring semester, yay)


	7. This is Nice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ford and Steven talk some more, Steven feels like he can trust the Pines. Sure why not, bring the whole family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, thank you guys so much for all the follows, comments, and kudos, I'm really glad you're liking this :)

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*

“AH” 

*Thunk* 

and he fell out of bed and onto the floor. 

What a busy night. After putting Dipper to bed it was already about 4 in the morning. Steven’s alarm to get up and get ready to take his meds goes off at 6 am. Despite having slept a bit before waking up and finding Dipper, 2 hours of sleep didn’t feel all that great. 

He grabbed his meds from the top drawer of the dresser and went to the kitchen. 

“Good morning Steven,” Ford said enthusiastically but looked at Steven’s face looking super tired.   
“Long night?” 

“Ah yeah, something like that..did Dipper ever give you the piece of paper?” Steven went to just get juice, he can drink coffee later. He was so tired, nothing could really faze him right now.

“He did, I was wondering if I could ask something regarding fusion,” Ford said while pulling out his Journal and placing it on the table. Where was it before? He came over and sat next to Steven at the table.

Steven had taken the meds but was just staring at his cup, he could fall asleep right now. If Ford wasn’t trying to talk to him. He looked up at Ford with tired eyes, just raised his eyebrows   
“Okay” 

“Well you said Garnet was a fusion, is it like nuclear fusion?” Ford said ready to write something down.  
“What’s nuclear fusion?” Steven’s sleepy face of confusion was enough to make Ford realize Steven probably never even heard of that.

“Nevermind that...what does fusion mean to you?” Now he was ready to write something down. 

“well..For Gems...our life force comes from our gem, body’s are a projection of light, but it has mass and stability. If a gem get’s hurt too badly, they poof, and stay in their gem to focus on coming back properly… Fusion is..when two or more gems trust each other with that light, their minds combine and they become one entity. Garnet explained it not as being different people or one..more like an experience.. She’s always Garnet because Ruby and Sapphire love eachother very much...I even officiated their wedding..” 

Ford was sitting quietly writing stuff down into his Journal,

‘Is that different from Dipper’s?’ Steven wondered.

“Okay… their lights combine and become one… given you’re half human, are you unable to fuse?” 

“I can fuse...I can fuse with Gems… humans…whichever” Steven said as he rested his head on his hand at the table. 

“You can fuse with humans as well as Gems?” 

“Mmmhmm” Steven’s eyes started closing. 

Ford thought about asking for research purposes if Steven would consider fusing with him, but he thought it was probably too personal. 

“May I see your Gem?” 

“Uh.. sure…” Steven leans back in his chair and pulls up his shirt. 

Ford leans forward to get a look at the gem, down at his notebook, then back up at the gem, then completes a drawing of Steven’s Gem. 

“Is it just on the surface of your skin or a part of you?”

“It goes in about…” He raised his hands, and made a gap between them “like that far in with a point at the end, and it’s a part of me, I’ll literally die if it is removed…” 

he stopped, the feeling of being awake was finally getting to him, along with the gravity of the conversation. 

“it’s been removed before.. And I was dying without it…” his tone was sad but still groggy “But I’m fine now, as you can see” 

“And you don’t poof?” 

“Nope, my human half protects me from poofing, and my gem half heals me after I’m hurt. I actually found out about a year ago that I had broken a bunch of bones, but I healed immediately.”

“So you have bones? Then how do you fuse?” 

Steven was slowly waking up more due to this conversation

“I...I’m not sure actually...I’m apparently the first and only of my kind, a hybrid, so there are a lot of answers we’re not sure of.” 

“Okay… and you wrote that your tears heal things worse than suffering…?” 

Steven turned pink for a second 

“I apologize, we don’t have to talk about it”

Steven shook his head and the pink went away. He thought he could tell him about Lars… but he can’t talk about… no. 

“No it’s fine… just don’t write down any specifics..” Ford nodded, but the tone changed, before it was a look of intrigue and focus, but now it is mixed with concern.

“My friend Lars, was helping me protect some outcast gems on homeworld, and there was an accident...he was holding onto something that exploded and he um...he died… and… I...brought him back...when I cried.. And tears landed on him..…” at this point Steven wasn’t looking at Ford, he was just looking at one spot on the table

“oh...I see...how old were you?” 

“Like...14?...” 

Ford stayed quiet for a while… he stopped writing and just sat there. Silence settling into the air. 

‘He was 14… and held a friend who had died from an explosion...I can’t imagine that being easy to deal with...sure he brought him back..but that doesn’t mean it didn’t affect him...the way he talks about almost dying it sounds like it was a daily occurrence…’ Ford was stuck in his thoughts a bit. 

“Hey um...Ford...I’m gunna go for a run before work starts”

Ford was snapped out of his thoughts 

“A run? May I accompany you?” He wanted to know if he could measure Steven's speed.

Steven made a face that kind of said ‘are you serious?’ and ‘you’re kidding, right?’

“I mean, if you want to, I heard there is a trail in the woods that leads to the lake, I wanted to try it out, I’ll be ready in like...lets say 10 minutes? Sound good?” 

“Yes, quite. I’ll see you then” 

~~~~~

As Steven heads upstairs he runs into Mabel. 

“Wow steven, you’re up early.” She sounded really tired. 

“Yeah, actually, I’m about to go on a run with your great uncle Ford.”

“Ooooooo you’re running with Grunkle Ford” 

“Yeah?”

“Dipper and I would LOVE to join you!” 

Steven thought back on that night, and that Dipper probably didn’t sleep that much.

“Are you sure HE wants to go?” 

“I dunno, I’ll ask him” and she hopped back upstairs. 

Steven got dressed in a Shirt, gymshorts, and socks and running shoes. Y’know normal attire. Ford dressed in a tracksuit.

While getting dressed Steven starts thinking about the fact that, despite knowing he’s gem, they still treat him like a normal person. And when he talks about things with them he doesn’t feel panic… it’s nice. Maybe he can do some more gem things around them. Let’s start simple.   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

“Hey Ford, are you ready to run?” 

“I AM, but..I kind of invited Stanley, he did tell me he wanted to work out more often.” 

Stan and the twins come out of the door and meet them outside. 

“You pansies ready to run or what?” Stan tried to sound cocky but all of them doubted he could even catch up.

And they were right. 

~~~~~~~~~

Steven took off at first, he ran pretty far ahead pretty quickly. Then he realized, literally everyone was barely getting out of their stretches. He hadn’t really thought of the fact that he usually runs with the gems, and they’re pretty fast, and Connie. Connie was pretty fast because she was fit, but Steven really had to slow down to not run without her. 

Steven ran back to everyone. 

“Geeze, how do you run so fast?” 

“I think it’s thanks to my Gem halfff….” he realized no one told Stan. Why hasn't anyone told Stan? 

“Gem?” he raised an eyebrow. 

“Uuuhh, Ford can tell you all about it.. Okay let’s go” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Even though he was running pretty slow (to his standards), he was still faster than everyone else, but any slower and he’d pretty much be walking (well to his standards).  
Mabel was in second place, with Dipper close behind.

Apparently they joined Track & Field once they joined highschool, just in case they had to run from any Zombies or demons or something. They wanted to be fit to run away from danger. 

Steven absorbed that. ‘Okay’,   
~~~~~~~~~~~

Halfway there, Stan and Ford had already given up on running, and were walking together while Ford tried to explain Steven to Stan.   
~~~~~~~~~~~

Steven, Dipper, and Mabel reached the lake. 

“Wow this is so beautiful” Steven was just looking at the nature of it all. Quite beautiful indeed. 

“Yeah it’s pretty, there’s some kind of nessie thing under the water or something but he haven’t really seen anything like that.” 

“Well maybe we can take a tour when your Grunkles get here” Steven said with a smile.   
They all just sat on a log for a bit, talking, a plaidypus came by and sat by Steven’s feet while they talked. Steven pet it’s little plaid designed hair. What a cutie.   
Mabel was very amazed it let Steven pet it, then Steven did the unthinkable.

He picked it up and handed it to her. 

Mabel just lost it 

“You’re so cute! Yes you are yes you are!” 

They sat there for a while in silence, the plaidypus had fallen asleep, so they tried to be courteous to the animal sleeping on Mabel’s lap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

25 minutes passed and Ford and Stan had finally arrived. 

“Sorry to keep you waiting kids, Poindexter here was telling me all about Steven, half alien? You kids really know how to pick em, huh?” He said it in a joking matter, but Steven could tell from their conversation last night that he was being serious. 

“HECK YEAH WE DO!” Mabel said, and startled the animal and it ran off her lap “aww…” 

“It’s okay, it might happen again” Steven said with a hand on her shoulder. 

“Steven here was saying he can take us a tour of the lake!” Mabel said with excitement. 

“Didn’t you just hear about this lake?” Ford said puzzled. 

“Yeah but like...a different kind of tour. Here, everyone gather close.” 

They all got close to Steven, and Steven formed a large bubble around the five of them. Everyone was very amazed. Mabel loved a giant pink hamster ball, Ford and Dipper wondered how it works and it’s made of, and Stan was just thinking this was cool.

“Steven, you made this?” Dipper said with amazement. 

“Yep! Is everyone ready?”

“Ready forrrrr...are you taking us underwater??” Dipper looked a little scared. 

“It’ll be fine I promise, did this with Connie the first day we met, and now I know how to use all my powers” he said with a reassuring smile. It worked, Dipper seemed to have relaxed. Nice. 

“Okay everyone, so you gotta walk with me? It’s like we’re in a-”

“A GIANT HAMSTER BALL” 

“Aha yeah Mabel, like a giant hamster ball.” 

And rolling into the lake they went.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nothing super exciting, Ford pointed out some creatures indigonous to Gravity falls, and some Stomach-Faced Ducks were diving to get fish. Steven thought they were pretty cool, opposite to when Ford first saw them. 

They decided not to go in too deep into the lake, since Steven had work in a few hours and he still had to get back and shower. Mabel’s shift started after Wendy's ends, and Dipper also worked later in the day. 

There was a point, where they stopped and started turning around slowly to get back to shore. But before they got back to shore, they slowed down for a bit. 

“This is nice” Ford said with a softness to his voice. “Being here all together, sometimes it just feels like we’re all running circling around different planets. This is really nice…” 

“Aww, c’mon sixer, don’t get all sappy on us” Stan says this but he has tears welling in his eyes, He didn’t really like being too sappy, at least when everyone was around. 

Stan too was very happy.

“Awww you love us” Mabel said teasingly, but she and Dipper went to hug their Grunkles. 

Steven was happy to see such a loving moment between a family, it made him really miss the Gems and his dad. Nice family group hugs are always nice.

Suddenly Steven was pulled into the hug by Stan. 

“And Steven you’re okay too” He said with a smile. 

“Yeah he is,” Dipper said quietly. 

Stan cleared his throat “Okay okay, we should get going”. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They got to the end, out of the water, and Steven popped the bubble. 

He checked his phone for time,

“Oh crap, it’s 9, my shift starts in an hour” 

“You really don’t have to worry about it” Stan said with a shrug. 

“Still, I don’t want to be late..are you guys fine here at the lake?” 

“We are,” Ford said, speaking for himself and Ford. 

“Well I start work at 11” Mabel said 

“And I kind of want to go home..” Dipper said awkwardly, looking at his uncles laughing and talking. 

“Mmmm okay, are you fine with going fast?” 

“How fast do you mean fast..?” Dipper asked nervously. 

“Honestly, I’m not super sure, but not my fastest, so it should be fine” 

“Should be??” 

“C’mon Dipper, we trust him” 

Dipper nodded “okay” 

Steven picked them under both arms, 

“Lady and Gentlemen, keep your hands, arms, feet, and legs, next to the Steven at all times, and now

enjoy the ride”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting this really late, my bad. I had finished my last final research project, now, it's summer baabbeey. 
> 
> If you are one of the people who read this daily, I'm happy you're interested. If you're not reading it in the middle of the night, maybe it'll be a nice surprise in the morning? i dunno.
> 
> Anyone interested in any side stories? I'm currently working on Steven at Pride parade.


	8. Employee of the Hour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven's first day at work is pretty eventful

“OH MY GOSH! That was literally one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, and you’ve ran faster than that?”

“Yeeaahhh….” part of him wanted to laugh, Mabel’s and Dipper’s hair was all over the place. His hair was pretty dense and curly, that running doesn’t do much for him, maybe looking pulled back but that’s not much. 

“Well, gunna go get ready, see you later” Steven said while he was heading to the shower, this time with a new shirt in the mix. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“And this one opens the cash register?” 

“Mmhmm” 

“And I just have to input how much they gave me...and give them the change...and I have to figure it out each time?” 

“A lot of the time they just give you a full buck instead of counting out the change, and you’ll recognize the patterns, it’ll get easier.” 

“Okay” 

“And what do we say about refunds?” 

“No?” 

“You got it” 

And that was pretty much 50% of the training. 

They went over some basics and how to talk to people, and the right to refuse service to anyone, and lie and say everything is genuine. Steven didn’t like the lying, but he should have thought about it before accepting the job from Stan. 

Soon wendy’s hour of training ended along with her shift.   
“Later guy” 

“Bye” 

And that chill atmosphere was replaced with a louder bubbly atmosphere. 

“HEY STEVVOOON” 

“Hey Mabel, you doing good?” 

“Yeah I’m good just bored, has anyone been coming in?” 

“Well a few people came and toured with Soos and bought a few magnets and a shirt” 

“Ooooo, speaking of shirts, I’m liking the shirt” It was the forest green shirt with a huge question mark on it, on top of that he was just wearing his denim jacket with his star pin. He had on his black pants and sneakers. 

“Heh, Thanks” 

Suddenly a big tourist group came in with Soos to look at all of the items. Mabel took over the cash register and Steven started straightening up everything in the store. 

Steven was still fixing things up when Dipper came down, he was behind the register with Mabel, the tourist group started pouring into the gift shop. He looked around when Steven suddenly noticed   
“Hey um...where’s Dipper?” 

Mabel just pointed down. 

‘Is he under the counter?’ He thought as he slowly approached Mabel.

Dipper was in fact, under the counter. 

“Hey buddy, you okay?” Steven whispered. 

“No...see the kid over there with the red shirt?” 

“Yeah, I see him” 

“He bullied me a lot before… he spread rumors around school about me being… a cry baby… he’s with his brother who helped him with spreading it around” 

Ah yes. Steven remembered. It had just been that morning, in the middle of the night basically, that Stan told him about this. 

“Oh yeah?” Steven was trying not to sound too mad.   
“Well if anything happens, I got you, okay?” 

Dipper nervously nodded. 

“Do you want me to help you get back upstairs?” 

“No..it’s fine..I got this…” he got up and started walking to get to his room. 

This endeavor did not go without threat. 

“Oh my god, Russel, it’s the cry baby” 

Dipper froze, he really thought he was being sneaky. 

“Awww, you gunna go run away and cry like a baby?”   
“Ha, you know what else cries like a baby, a girl, are you a girl Dipper?”  
“A girl pretending to be a boy, huh, is that it?.”  
They kids really thought they were funny, they were laughing among eachother. 

“Get out.” said a very firm voice, startling the two boys, 

“Ooo the wimp has a bodyguard, haha can’t even fight for himself with his little gir-”

“I Said Get Out. now.” Steven was trying really hard to not like his full anger show, he didn’t want to turn pink in front of everyone. 

“OH yeah? What are you going to do, throw me out?”

“Yes.” he said as he grabbed onto the fronts of the shirts, and pulled, sweeping them off their feet and held them like groceries. When he got through the door he just tossed them on the floor. 

“Ow”  
“Oww, what the hell?” 

“Now, Don’t come back” he started to turn to go back into the store but then he felt the need to turned around

And then he was punched in the face. 

Steven himself wasn’t very affected by the punch, he didn’t fall back or yell, his hand just gently touched his face, only in a ‘what just happened’ kind of way. His cheek was in no way damaged, but the guy’s hand hurt bad, he was holding onto his hand with the other. Had Steven ever been punched by a human? Mabel was in the doorway recording, she started recording when Steven picked up the guys, he thought it would be funny to go back on later with Dipper.

“Why you son of a-”

The other one, the one that started it all just because he saw Dipper, tried coming up to punch Steven but this time he was dodging. 

Swing, miss

Swing, miss

Kick, miss 

“Ugggh! I’m not going to lose to some weirdo's friend” and he pulled something out of his pocket. 

Oh. 

A pocket knife. 

Okay. 

Now this kid, just tested the last of Steven’s patience. 

He swung at Steven with it, and Steven just caught his arm, grabbed the knife and Snapped it in half with one hand. He let go of the guys arm and the guy just froze,

‘who the hell is this guy?’ but he gave up, his arm hurt from being grabbed by Steven and Steven literally put no pressure into holding the arm. Maybe it was the stop of motion when he caught it. 

The guy grabbed his brother’s arm and headed to the car. 

Steven walked into the Shack and was greeted with two hugs.

“THAT WAS SO COOL!” Mabel said a little too loud considering she was right next to Steven’s ear. They let go of the hug and just stood in front of him.

“How’s your face?” Dipper seemed concerned. 

“My face is fine...are you okay?” 

“Yeah… I guess… I just didn’t think I’d see them here…” 

“Well this is a tourist attraction” Mabel said, trying not to sound mean.

“Yeah..I know….. Thank you Steven, you really didn’t have to do that” 

“Yes I did, and technically I think I’m supposed to kick problematic people out of the store…” 

“Yeah, man I wish you kicked their butts” 

“Naaahh...I can’t really do that, human hitting is not for me” Steven remembered he once punched his dad in hopes of them escaping the human zoo and it only shot hm into a tree. He can only one time in the last year he’s punched a human, but he really deserved it...he was cornering that woman in the alley. 

The rest of Steven’s shift was calm after that incident. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

After his shift ended he still hung around the shop to hang out with the twins.

Mabel had shown her Grunkles the video she recorded. Both Stan and Ford congratulated Steven, but they also wished they could have seen it and hit the kids themselves since Steven didn't hit them.

After all the commotion, everything seemed to go back to normal.

Suddenly everyone in the shop was talking, some sounding scared, and some amazed 

“Did you see what was outside?”   
“we should stay in here for a while”  
“maybe it escaped from the circus”

Steven’s ears pinpointed two words 

“Pink Lion” 

Steven ran outside, and immediately Lion jumped onto him, pinning him to the ground. 

“Oh my god! It’s eating him!” Many looked away in fear of seeing a gruesome sight. 

Dipper and Mabel ran outside in hopes of saving Steven but he was....

Laughing?

“Hey Lion, did you miss me? awww… Buddy, did you come all the way out here by yourself?”

“I don’t know, did he?” Steven looked up at the voice

“Connie!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked reading it <3 
> 
> honestly guys, I'm probably going to post the next chapter tonight, maybe
> 
> Have a good rest of your day :)


	9. The Cautious Visitor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone look it's Connie...and a pink lion?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pretty dialogue heavy

“Hey biscuit, c’mon Lion let me get a chance” 

Lion gets off of Steven, he gets up, and dusts himself off, and then Connie jumps onto him. Steven picks her up and holds her, spinning her around. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Dipper and Mabel looked at eachother, then at the Lion, then at Steven with the Girl

“OH so that must be Connie” Mabel says, not really to Dipper but kind of to Dipper.

“Yeah, I think I’ve seen a picture of her” 

“Well we should go say hi” Mabel enthusiastically to Dipper

“But the lion? And what about the cash register?” 

“Well the lion isn’t attacking anyone and….GRUNKLE STAN WATCH THE REGISTER OR YOU’LL LOSE MONEY” 

Hurried stumbling came into the gift shop as Mabel and Dipper left to shop. 

“Is he safe?” Dipper said loudly to Steven.

“Yeah” Steven and Connie said simultaneously. 

They got closer, but were still ten feet away. 

Steven and Connie giggled together for a minute, and walked over to the twins with Lion in between them. 

“It’s okay, he won’t bite” 

Mabel was the first one to reach a head out and pet the top of Lion’s nose, he leaned into the pets, she let out an excited squeal and started petting Lions mane. Dipper was hesitant but pet Lion between the ears, and asked 

“So Steven is this your lion or Connie’s?” 

“How did you know my name?” Connie looked over 

“Oh Steven here talks about you all the time” Mabel intervened. 

“Awww, Steven you like me?” 

“We’ve been dating for over a year… well...officially dating”

“I know” she said while poking his nose. 

“But anyway, Lion is mostly mine, but he’s been staying with Connie while I’m on the road, but we meet up” 

“Oh I see” 

“Oh Connie, this is Dipper, and this is Mabel”

Connie shook both of their hands

“Aha and I am Connie, as you know” 

“Do you think your Grunkles would let us go inside?” 

“Yeah it should be fine” Mabel says with a smile. 

“Okay cool!” Steven smiles and starts walking to the side door with Connie and Lion. 

“wait...Mabel, is he going into the house with Lion too…?” 

“Uhhhh” 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ 

Steven and Connie walked into the house, and Lion followed them in. 

“Hey Lion, do you want to take a nap? There’s a quiet room over here.” Steven suggested. 

Lion was very pleased with the offer of a nap, he curled up in Steven’s bed. Steven led Connie to his room to join Lion. Connie closed the door behind them. 

“Are you better now than last night…? You didn’t sound too great.” she said as they both sat on the end of the bed with Lion hogging the top half. 

“I’m better… I mean I’ve only been here...three days? Oh geez … I feel like more time has passed…” he placed a hand over his face, then looked back up at her. 

She gently took his hand 

“Are they treating you okay?” 

“Yeah actually, in fact they know I’m half alien already and don’t treat me any different for it” he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. 

“They already know? They’re not just trying to use you or anything, are they?” She sounded concerned. 

“I..don’t think so, I mean Ford keeps asking me questions, but that's more because he likes doing research on the strange and weird, not cause he’s trying to get anything out of it.” 

“Are you sure?” She said as she placed a hand on Steven’s cheek. 

“Yeah I’m sure...They’ve gone through stuff...and the “Grunkle” said he’s glad they found a friend like me, apparently I’m “Nice”” Steven used air quotes for both Grunkle and Nice, Connie laughed

“Steven you are nice, I just want to make sure you’re fine here” 

“I am fine, I mean..there’s creatures in the woods, but apparently most of them are nice...I’m technically not supposed to tell you, but it’s not like you’re not knowledgeable.”

“What do you mean creatures?” 

“Like….uh...here, see” Steven still had the journal that Dipper let him borrow, he handed it to Connie. She looks at it and looks at Steven, she opens it up and reads the summer Dipper had wrote, that Gravity Falls is a hotspot for weird, she was about to make a comment that it just looked like art and maybe it was made up, until she reached the pictures. The room was quiet. 

*Knock Knock Knock*

“I’ll be right back” he walked over to the door 

“ oh Hey Ford is everything okay?” 

“ I was actually coming to ask you that, I heard someone with all your descriptions was attacked by a lion? Was that you?” 

“Uh yeah? But I wasn’t attacked, I’m fine, that’s just Lion, Connie rode him here.” 

“Connie’s here?” Ford sounded confused, he was pretty sure Steven had just said she was a long while away. 

“Yeah...hold on” Steven slowly closed the door.  
“Heeeyy...Connie, would you be interested in meeting Ford? He’s the one who’s interested in science and such…” 

“Oh um sure, yeah” she said and placed the journal down, and got up and stood next to Steven. He opened the door back up again. 

“Heeey, so this is Connie, Connie this is Ford” 

“Salutations” Ford says as he puts a hand out  
“Salutations” Connie shakes his hand back. 

“Steven has talked about you quite a lot, attending University next semester is quite an accomplishment” 

“Oh thank you, and you have several PHDs?” Connie was very skeptical of Ford, she knows Steven can be very trusting sometimes, and a guy doing “research” does not sound very convincing. 

“Why yes. I do.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

All three of them sat at the table for a bit. Steven literally said nothing.  
Connie was pretty much interrogating Ford. Not rudely. Just question after question.  
She asked him questions from personal, academic, and what exactly does he know about Steven.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After about a half an hour the questions stopped and then everything relaxed. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Connie stayed for Dinner, which was surprising for Dipper, since when were his uncles so open? Twice within a week? 

Mabel and Dipper told of their adventures (not of their first summer), 

“Oh my gosh, so we were hiking and found a Leprecorn, it was this weird leprechaun and unicorn hybrid...and… gosh...super weird looking. ANYWAY I thought maybe it would grant wishes, but no… it was just weird.” Mabel shuttered at remembering the weird little man horse unicorn thing.

Ford laughed  
“Oh Mabel, I tried telling you about them, I thought they were very irritating...along with those annoying unicorns” 

“AWW man, Unicorns aren’t good?” Connie seemed pretty bummed

“Well they have good things about them… like how you can use their hair to protect your house, but besides that they-” 

“They’re total jerks, they think they’re soooo much better than everything and everyone” Mabel interrupted Ford with her frustration. She really did not like Unicorns anymore. 

Soon, Ford and Stan talked about their adventures on the Stan O War. 

“AND THEN THE GIANT WHALE ATE US WHOLE!” 

“No, Stanley, don’t say that, Connie that’s not true, he thinks he’s funny”

“What are you talking about? They love it, look at their faces, I’m hilarious.” 

Steven and Connie’s faces were not laughing, they were legitimately concerned for a good few seconds. 

“No no Sixer, c’mon I’m funny, here, listen...

Police came to the door one day and asked ‘where were you between 4 and 5?’ and I said PRESCHOOL!” 

Everyone laughed, even Ford, though everyone was a little on edge about STAN saying the police came, until the punchline. Steven laughed, but he leaned over right after everyone stopped laughing to whisper to Connie and asked “what’s preschool?” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Dinner, Stan and Ford were introduced to Lion, who had decided to wake up. 

“Fascinating...what gives him his pink pigment? And how is he so hospitable?” 

“He’s pink cause, he...died...and was brought back by my mom…” Steven said awkwardly while slightly squeezing Connie’s hand. She did talk to him before letting Ford ask questions that if he didn't want to answer, he could say ‘pass’, she also explained it to Ford. Steven should have done that earlier.

“ah...Is Lars also pink?” Ford asked cautiously. 

“Yeah.. he is…” 

"and he's nice because....mmmm....I actually don't know"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After that busy night  
Steven sat alone with Connie in his bedroom for a while, 

“So did you like it?” he asked hesitantly 

“Yeah actually, I can see why you like them. But you should be careful going outside alone at night.” She said with a reassuring Smile. 

“Hey Connie?” he said, taking hold onto her hand. 

“Yeah Steven?” 

“I love you so much..I’m glad you decided to come” 

“I love you too, and I came because last night you sounded a little too dismissive after sounding really worried… I wanted to know if you really were okay...and not just saying you’re fine when you’re not…” she said as he took the hand Steven was holding and placed it on her face. 

“Thank you…were you...planning on spending the night?” Steven said hopefully. 

“I was but...I’m assuming since you’re staying here, you’ll have to ask” she said looking at the closed door. 

“Alright then...I’ll be right back..” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mostly everyone had gone to sleep, he knew Ford was awake, but he decided to ask Stan. He went over to his room and knocked. Hopefully he’s awake. 

The door swings open. 

“Hey kid, everything alright?” 

“yeeeaahhh...I was wondering if it was okay if Connie spent the night...it’s dark out...and things are you out and about...yknow….” Steven was getting really awkward, he doesn’t remember the last time he had to ask for this. 

A devilish smile grew on Stan’s face. 

Oh no. 

“oooooOOoo you want her to spend the night? Sure sure..that’s okay..but just remember, be quiet and use protection” 

“I-wha-no-I- “ Steven was now incredibly awkward and flustered. His face felt like it was getting hot. 

Stan patted him on the shoulder,  
“Have fun kid, but not too much fun, I don’t think you want a little Steven junior running around right now, well, Good night” and he closed the door in front of Steven. 

Steven was just frozen staring at the closed door with his lips sucked in. He didn’t know if Stan was joking or not. But he felt very awkward now. 

While growing up, no one had told him about the deed, but as soon as Steven started dating Connie, her mom sat him down and gave him the talk. Also made Greg sign him up for a sex education class that they had online. No matter how he felt about it, whenever any adult tried talking to him about it, it was always awkward. 

Steven slowly walks back to the room, and sees that Connie is just petting Lion. He gets in and slowly closes the door behind him. And he finally lets out air he didn’t know he was holding. 

“Steven, are you okay?” 

“Yeeeaaaaaaahh….just… Stan thinks we’re going to….” 

“Oh… well...we can sleep as Stevonnie? that way if they come in here or something they won’t get the wrong idea?” she said with reassurance. 

“Yeah..we can do that…” 

She came up to him and hugged him, and a bright light filled the room, and now in the room was only Stevonnie and Lion. 

They laid down in the bed, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you think any of them actually know who Stevonnie is...? 
> 
> Good morning. Have any fun plans? we're still locked in our houses so that's fun. I hope everyone is taking care of their mental health. Thank you so much for reading this story, I'm happy so many of you like it :)


	10. Guess Who's Joining us for Breakfast?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fun breakfast guest starring, Stevonnie <3

“You brought her into this, all you’ll do is ruin her. She is right to be scared of you, and you’ll make her just like you

A

Monster. “

Stevonnie was turning into a monster, and Steven could feel the pain it brought to Connie. He tried unfusing to save Stevonnie but it was too late. 

They woke up.

Steven had the nightmare about diamond Steven again, but this time Connie was there with him and saw the whole thing. It was the middle of the night and Steven quickly unfused and Connie ended up falling onto the floor. Steven was glowing pink, growing and trying to force himself to shrink back down. 

She kept trying to calm him down. He got heavy and sunk into the bed, breaking the frame. 

“Steven it’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here, you need to breathe…” 

She crawled onto the bed and held him for a while...he cried into his own hands, not acknowledging her holding him. 

“Steven it’s okay...It was just a dream...everything is fine…” 

“But it’s true...I’ll just end up hurting you…” 

“No Steven...even when you weren’t doing good...you never hurt me....I’m here...I love you so much please...it’s fine…” 

The hands over his eyes, started to squeeze into fists, scratching his own face and pulling his hair in the process. 

“Steven please you need to calm down...I don’t want you hurting yourself again…” 

“I wouldn’t do that again…” his color started to fade and he made himself calm down.

“I love you...we should sleep...we’ll talk about this in the morning…..” 

He finally held her back, wrapping his arm around her. She rested her chin on the top of his head and they slowly fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was now early morning

Steven got up Took his meds, surprisingly Ford wasn’t out in the kitchen that morning. He sat there for 15 minutes, waiting for his meds to settle in a little more, then head  
back to bed. Connie looked up at Steven, held her arms open, and he just flopped on her, and they formed Stevonnie again. 

“Do you really think I’m scared of you…?” Stevonnie said to themself. 

“I..know you’re not...just...why aren’t you? You should be terrified of me…” 

“I love you...you’re not bad...you let things overwhelm you for too long… and it has a bad effect on people...but you aren’t bad...and just because you think about it doesn’t mean you should let it overwhelm you…” 

“Maybe we shouldn’t have fused…” 

“Don’t say that… your dream isn’t real...I’m not scared of you...you’re not going to hurt me…” 

“But you were hurt…” 

“You didn’t mean to… you hurt us a little...but you were just trying to force us to unfuse...and get me away from you…”

“I’m sorry…” 

“I know…”

“I love you so much…” 

“I know….i love you too…” they hugged themself and fell back asleep. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They woke up to the sound of something… what is it? 

*Knock Knock* 

Oh knocking. 

“Hey Steven, breakfast is ready” 

Did Stan tell anyone Connie spent the night? 

Nope. 

He thought maybe they others would try to invade on their “personal time”. His mind is in the gutter about eighty percent of the time. 

“Okay!” Stevonnie yelled back to the voice

Mabel was slightly confused by Steven’s voice, but maybe that was just how Steven’s voice sounds like in the morning. 

Stevonnie got out of bed and stretched. It had been a long night, they just wanted to sleep. 

Okay, ready to start a new day. 

Stevonnie opened the door, and was met with Mabel. 

They looked down at the frozen look on Mabel’s face and just said

“I’ll just meet you at the table?” and they walked past Mabel to the kitchen. 

Stan was tired and staring into his cup of coffee and Ford was still preparing the french toast on the plates. 

“Who...are you?” Mabel said from the doorway.

Ford quickly turned around and Stan looked up from the coffee. The room was frozen. Dipper walks down and enters the room 

“Hey guys why is it so qui….” now Dipper is frozen. Finally Ford unfreezes and pulls out a gun. 

“Who are you and what are you doing in my house?” he asks sternly.

Stevonnie quickly raises their hands. 

Wondering ‘where was that gun this whole time, he’s wearing pajamas’

“Hey what are you talking about it’s just me” saying defensively. 

“And you are?” slightly lowering the gun. 

“Stevonnie?” 

See the problem is, Stevonnie has only ever slept places people know them and don’t think anything of it and just say ‘oh good morning stevonnie’. 

He raised an eyebrow and then it hit them, THEN. not before then. Just then. 

“OH! Oh oh oh oh….my bad. I’m Steven and Connie.” they said with their hands up and out trying to explain. 

“You’re a fusion?” Ford says as he put the gun down entirely. His face transferred from the stoic look to a look of wonderment. 

“Yeeeah, it was kind of a long night.” they say awkwardly. Stan chokes on his coffee. 

“What do you mean fusion?” Dipper and Mabel said in unison. 

“It’s like….when you mix two hydrogen and one oxygen and it makes water, something new.” Ford explained. 

“OH like when I make orange soda with coffee and it makes an entirely new flavor but still tasted like both a little?” Mabel said like it totally made sense. 

“That...uhm… distasteful….but yes, kind of like that” Ford said with disgust written on his face. 

“But how did you do this…? Did you do it? I head people can become one when they do it and yknow, at the same time” Stan said with a squint to kiss eye 

“I can shoot you. Right now.” Ford said, glaring at his twin. 

“Why are you like this?” Dipper said from the other side of the room. 

“No no no … nothing like that. It’s just like this” and they unfused. They were holding hands and with Steven’s free hand he gestured out like ‘see?’. Then they fused back to Stevonnie. Ford had walked over to them. Looked at them right in the eye and put a hand asking for Stevonnie’s. Stevonnie placed their hand in Ford’s, and he looked at the top and the palm, looking at how it just looked like a completely different person, no cracks in the seams. 

“Remarkable” he stopped inspecting and shook their hand, 

“well nice to meet you Stevonnie, will you be joining us for breakfast or Steven and Connie?” there was a surprise to Stevonnie’s face

“Uh, I guess I will, Connie does have to leave in a few hours, it’d be nice to be me for a while” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The whole time eating, everyone was asking questions

“When was the first time you fused?” 

“How does it feel to be a fusion?” 

“If you unfuse do you both get half the food you ate?” 

“Why are you called Stevonnie?” 

“Do you have to think about fusing to fuse?” 

Stevonnie tried answering all of them while eating 

“We were dancing on the beach a few years ago, good?, I think so, Amethyst just mashed our names together, yeah”. 

The meal was awkward thanks to all the questions, and all the attention, it kind of felt like when Connie and Steven decided to go as Stevonnie to a funeral because Connie needed extra support. It was also awkward due to the fact that both Dipper and Ford were writing down everything they said.

There was an abundance of question before Stevonnie quickly looked over at Dipper when he asked 

“Why are you so attractive?” 

“What?” 

“what” He didn’t think about actually saying that, he only thought he thought it.  
“I-I-I- didn’t say anything” 

Convincing. 

However, Stevonnie is used to people acting bashful around them. They just decided to ignore the question since he decided against it. 

“I mean, both Steven and Connie are both very beautiful people,” Mabel said with a shrug but teasingly to Dipper. 

Stevonnie giggled a little at the complement 

“Thanks Mabel” 

~~~~~~~~~~~

After breakfast it was just Stevonnie and Ford since the twins started their shift in the Shack. 

“Would it be alright for me to record you unfusing?” 

“Why?” 

“Well, for research, to see if there is anyway I could find any answers?” 

“Uh sure?” 

They unfused, and stayed there kind of unsure what next. 

“Thank you” 

“Uh..no problem” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steven walked Connie outside. Lion followed behind them, sniffing all the weird smells of the forest. 

“I know I’ll be busy the rest of the day but...if you need me for anything, please call. If not me, your dad or the Gems.” 

“Okay… you’re just easier to talk to sometimes..” 

“I understand...but talk to someone, not any plants, just..don’t bottle it up” 

“I know...I love you Connie... don’t stress too much over your studies” 

“I love you too” She holds his cheek “try not to stress too much either” 

She leans in and gives him a gentle loving kiss, he pulls her in and holds her tight. 

“Okay, I’ll talk to you soon” they let go of the hug that was a result of kissing and she jumped onto Lion. 

“Take care” 

“You too” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steven slowly walked back to the shack. Smelling the morning pine drifting in the air. 

He entered the shack to find Ford still recording data in his journal, but he looked up when Steven entered. A solemn expression on his face. He was debating whether or not bringing up such a subject is a good idea.

“Steven..I have a question, it’s very personal, and it is certainly asking too much... may I ask?” 

“Um...it depends...what’s the question?” He looked concerned, scared for the question he was guessing was going to be asked. 

“Would you consider fusing with me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This being posted super late, sorry, I mean it's late for me, maybe not for you but still Today <3
> 
> Hope you like it. 
> 
> fun night snack? 
> 
> or good morning? 
> 
> Good night <3
> 
> AMA on my instagram if you wanna  
>  @mother_mortician_


	11. Doctor S

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Decisions were made

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW- panic attack toward the end

“Hold on….excuse me….what?”

Ford had only wondered. He thought of how much he could learn about gemkind and fusion. He thought about the research and data he could collect. He knew it would be asking a lot, and he knew it was personal, however, looking at the appalled expression on Steven’s face, it seemed like he had just asked to court a teenager. 

“Wait.. no ...you’re right I’m sorry” Ford made a mental note to slam his head into a wall later. 

“I…” Steven didn’t know how to respond, he wanted to just say ‘no, i don’t know you like that’ or ‘we just met a few days ago’, but all that could come out was   
“just…. why?” 

Ford was stunned by this response, after seeing the look on Steven’s face, he was sure Steven would just try to leave and avoid this current awkward situation. He knew he felt awkward, and wished he was a turtle who could go into their shell. 

“I… I wanted to understand…” Ford said reluctantly. 

Steven went silent and slowly walked to the table and sat down, hand covering his mouth, Ford was confused by this response, and sat opposite of him. He didn’t really acknowledge Ford deciding to sit at the table with him, he was just staring into nothingness. Steven thought back to Garnet offering to fuse with Peridot, to give her a better understanding of fusion. 

‘However she did just call Yellow Diamond a clod. Peridot did try killing everyone...but she did realize she was wrong. That's Garnet, she has had different life experiences, she never shattered anyone.. She was willing to let someone in who was only a friend for a short while to join her in a fusion, when she herself is a fusion of undying romantic love. I’ve never fused with anyone I don’t love...I loved Connie before we fused… I fused with the Gems...my dad… Lars… sure it’s not romantic love but I do love all of them… Do I love Ford? I mean I care about his well being… He doesn’t seem to have any ill intentions… but he will know everything…. Could I trust him knowing everything? What about him, I have no idea what he’s been though, but if it’s just as bad… but then maybe I could understand him too… maybe...’ 

he thoughts came to a stop and he joined the real world again when a cup of coffee was placed in front of him by Stan who had now joined the room. When did that happen? He glanced over at the clock, he was thinking for like five minutes. Finally Steven took a sip from the coffee, yuk, no cream or sugar, and then he broke the silence. 

“I..I understand that you want to understand… but do you also realize that..we’ll be one? You’ll know everything about me, and vice versa. I’ll know everything about you.” 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Ford did consider that, but he didn’t think too far past that initial thought. He too has had a troubling past. He trusted Steven living in his house, he trusted that Steven wouldn’t intentionally hurt his family, but could he trust the power of which Steven has difficulty containing when overwhelmed? 

‘It’s my fault that the world was almost ended by Bill, I invited him in, I trusted him, that was a mistake. Would letting Steven into my mind be just as bad? I have only known him for a few days, and I even had trouble trusting Dipper after knowing him and he was family. Bill was new and exciting when I met him and it backfired, would Steven be the same? Am I being over zealous? I’ve done and seen so much...but there are other people in this house, he won’t hurt them, and he seems to respect consent so if I change my mind we’ll unfuse...I’m sure he’ll unfuse if he wants to stop… is there anything except my knowledge and past that he could gain from this fusion?’

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

‘Why is it so awkward here?, they’re just sitting there staring at each other’ Stan thought as he leaned next to the oven. He considered joining them at the table but when he placed the coffee down and Steven said something about ‘being one’ and his brother stayed quiet and held a hand up to his face that it’ll just be a ‘thinking contest’. Not really a contest, just lots of thinking. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Ford..?” Steven said, trying to break the silence. 

“I have weighed my options….

and although I don’t know you too well, and you don’t know me, I would still like to try. I do have a...troubling past...therefore I am not one to judge yours.” 

Steven sat there and took another sip of the bitter coffee.

“Can you promise not to treat me differently...if you see anything….unsavory…” Steven said with a dubious look to his face. He thought it probably was not a good idea, but he also wanted to understand Ford more, and maybe letting someone new it wouldn't hurt...would it?

“I promise,” Ford said firmly. 

Steven stood up to the side of the table and reached a hand out to Ford, who stood across from Steven. He clasped Steven’s hand. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a bright light, Stan choked on his coffee. He was watching this whole thing play out but he didn’t think it was going to happen so quickly. Suddenly there was a being in front of him, with four eyes and two arms with 6 fingers on each hand. He was about six foot six inches. 

First thing he did was run to a mirror. He brought a hand to his face and looked at all four eyes, one pair over another. He looked like a younger Ford, but with puffier hair and a smaller nose. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Stan looked at the person, who looked like they could be a sibling, but no longer his twin brother. Except the extra pair of eyes. He recognized the eyes though, there was a brown pair of eyes on the top that looked like Ford’s and a hazel brownish green that looked like Steven’s eyes.   
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

There were so many thoughts going on, Ford wanted photographic evidence, they pulled out the phone 

“Could you take a photograph of me?” and handed it to a very shocked and confused Stan. The voice was like a strong man voice that sounded like no one he had ever heard. 

They first posed stoically, then frozen like they were taking a mugshot, and then they laughed, which Stan also caught a photo of. 

They wondered why their head was so heavy. 

They then ran outside, Steven wanted to show off his powers, they made a shield, a bubble, and jumped into the air and slowly floated back down. It was exciting, they were only thinking about the now. In the beginning of all of Steven’s fusions he is always excited about the new thing, he was excited and curious when he became all of the fusions. This was new he was curious, he hadn’t really fused with anyone new in a long time. 

They ran into the shack and went up to the register to Dipper with one of the pair of eyes closed, but opened the pair when he looked up. He nearly fell out of the stoll he was sitting on. 

“What the-?” 

“It’s me, your favorite Grunkle Forven? Steord? Stanforven? Uhhhh…. Your Grunkle ‘Doctor S’ ” He said with a thumbs up. And head out the door

“Hey Mabel!” 

“Hey- oh my gosh” 

And they were out the door. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They ran quickly into the woods, it was fun and exciting, yet, everything was happening so fast. 

They went up to a large rock and punched it, it was Ford’s idea, but it didn’t go well.   
Punching the rock reminded Steven of being in the woods with Jasper. 

Of when he…

They started panicking, they looked down at their hand, and could have sworn for a second they saw Jaspers shattered gem in their hand. Suddenly all of Steven’s memories flooded their mind. 

Everything. 

Him crying over ice cream, meeting Connie, pearl trying to fly them into space before the ship blew up, watching Amethyst getting cracked, pearl and garnet poofing, White Diamond pulling his gem out, everyone poofing from spinel, spinel swinging at him trying to poof him, seeing the injector, the empty garden in space, seeing the reef, yelling at pearl, turning pink, proposing to Connie, crashing the car, deleting his dad’s photo, avoiding Connie, feeling abandoned, avoiding help, denial, Shatting Jasper, finding Jasper’s gem shards on the forest floor, Trying to shatter White Diamond, turning into a monster, hurting his family, crying in the ocean, leaving his family behind, his travels…

As soon as the memories started flowing for Steven into Ford, Ford’s memories were flowing into Steven 

‘Being bullied, being best friends with Stan, getting things thrown at him at show and tell and Stan protecting him and punching kids in the face, rejection, fighting with Stan, moving into the woods, discovering new things, discovering Bill, meeting Bill in the Forest in a dream, building the portal, watching Fiddleford fly into the portal and his mind being scrambled, not sleeping, scared of everyone and everything, paranoia, asking Stan for help, fighting with Stan, flying into the portal, Bill sending a beast after him, hiding in a hole in an asteroid, meeting refugees, jumping from dimension to dimension, stealing pieces, wishing he could have lived in A better world, fighting Bill, and quickly being sucked out backing to his world, punching his brother, fighting bill again, erasing his brother’s memory, traveling the ocean…

Although there were a plethora of memories that went through Dr.S’s mind, only a few seconds had passed, like trying to eat a whole month's worth of food after not eating for a day, it is too much, too fast, it's overwhelming. It wasn’t just seeing the other’s memories, it was also seeing their own. Everything. At the same time. 

They immediately unfused. 

Steven was glowing pink, staring at the broken pieces of the rock in front of him. Growing into his diamond form, but with a slightly new addition. 

Ford was also looking at the broken pieces, he saw and felt what Steven had done, he felt the satisfaction of letting his power’s release and attacking Jasper, followed by dread. He felt his heart was racing; he didn’t know what to say to Steven. He saw Steven as a huge monster, attacking his family…

Steven saw Bill, all that he had done, Bill going into dreams and bodies and manipulating others. He felt like he was worse than before. He would go into others dreams just like that, he was once a monster, was he as bad as Bill. He could if he had the ambition to, he could destroy the Earth. Fusing was a horrible Idea. Awful. Terrible. Steven was letting everything overwhelm him. Why did he agree to this.

It wouldn’t have been that bad, if Dr. S’s power wasn’t picture perfect recall memory and a capacity for learning more. 

His heart was pounding, he was growing larger. His form was covered in purple and white splotches. He kept trying to calm down, but he was spirling. 

“Steven! Steven you need to calm down” 

There was silence, but Steven stopped growing. 

“Steven, please, it’s okay, you’re not bad, you’re good, you always act with best intentions, I don’t think you’re a monster, you’re not like Bill” 

Steven looked up at Ford, and slowly shrunk back down, and out of his diamond form, but stayed pink. The splotches had faded but still noticeable.

“You’re not like Bill” Ford repeated, he only knows Steven thought that because the thought went through their head when they were fused. After knowing everything, he REALLY didn't want to let Steven get too overwhelmed.

Steven sat silent for a while, and covered his face in his hands. He knew Ford thought it for a second, he knew Ford made a slight comparison. Then he finally spoke in a whisper.

“But aren’t I?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "it has no functional purpose, 
> 
> it just makes me feel bad"
> 
> -Peridot


	12. There's Always Room in an Old Man's Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything will be okay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grandpa mode activated

Ford was silent.

Steven was calmer, but that didn’t mean he was better.

“I heard what you thought…” 

Ford was trying to focus, but his mind was going a thousand miles an hour in multiple different directions. 

“The connection was made in terms of abilities...not intent… your intentions were never malicious. He was conniving and manipulative and selfish… all your life you have been extremely selfless” Ford was trying to help Steven feel better. However he did in fact, mean every word he was saying, but it was all just spewing out, For some reason, he felt scared of Steven right now and he wasn’t very sure why. 

(Maybe it’s because you’re in the middle of the woods alone with someone who could explode into a monster) 

But there was something that Ford saw that made him sure that Steven wouldn’t ever hurt people he cares about again. He now knows that Steven genuinely cares about his family. This memory genuinely hurt Ford. Steven made an attempt to shatter Pink Diamond... if you know what I mean...

Steven felt like these comments were ingenuine and forced. He could not stop thinking pessimistically. 

“No…you're lying...you saw what I’ve done….” Steven’s heart hurt, why was he telling himself everything was a lie? Was it all of Ford’s memories of paranoia that rubbed Steven the wrong way. Remembering everything is hard. It feels so recent yet so distant, like seeing something up close that is a little fuzzy to your eyes. But it’s happening, and he can’t make it stop. Simply hearing a word can send someone spirling, but Steven’s been working on it, he’s been working on his mental health, but lately everything just feels off. 

“I’ve seen what you’ve done, but...you’ve seen what I’ve done, everyone makes mistakes, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make up for them...you’re not bad…” There was so much about Steven that Ford understood now, he saw everything, not just the bad. He understands why what happened happened. Ford had lived many years making tough calls in difficult dimensions. 

Steven did see, but he saw Ford as someone who was tricked, not anyone who did anything seriously wrong.

“Steven..you need to forgive yourself, and I’m not saying that you need to do it now….and I know your therapist talks to you about this but…” Ford trailed off. He didn’t want to seem to preachy. 

He knew what Ford meant, but it wasn’t easy. He knew he should forgive himself but he just couldn’t. 

“I know…” Steven’s color finally went away, and he was just sitting there on the forest floor. 

Ford sat on the floor with Steven. He placed a hand on his shoulder, and Steven just went in and hugged him. A little too tight at first, but relaxed. Ford held onto Steven, trying to be as comforting as possible. 

He’s had many moments with the twins that made him wonder what it would have been like if he had had kids. Unlike Stan who was willing to do what it took to have a kid. He...He couldn’t. He wanted to be like other kids, and for a while wanted to want to be romantic and affectionate. He just wasn’t interested in anyone in a romantic sense to even considering doing anything like that that would provide a child. Even at this point, he would be a grandpa, like Shermie. He considered adopting a kid in a different dimension when he was younger, but he soon had to leave that dimension, leaving the kid behind. Wonder where they are..

Steven wondered what it would have been like if he grew up knowing he had a grandpa, would it have been like this? His real grandpa was very uncomfortable when he met him. He seemed distant and cold, but still cared for him. His dad’s parents were never those to be super affectionate. Just small short hugs. But this? This was nice. 

A part of him wanted to sob and another part went with just to get comfort and calm down.   
After some time, the hug ended and Ford stood up.  
Ford put a hand out to Steven, who accepted it, and he got back onto his feet. Maybe changing the topic a bit would help, and he can talk to his therapist later, hopefully they can take a call later today.

“So...what did you think of fusion?” Steven said hoping Ford would allow the topic to change. 

Ford looked at Steven and let out a huff of a laugh, he knew he was just changing the topic but he was happy to do so. 

“It was… Completely different from anything I had ever experienced. Do normally have all that energy flowing through you?” he asked while getting ready to write down the answer on a piece of paper that was left in his pocket. 

“Yeah actually, when I was younger, I didn’t have good control of my powers, but as I’ve gotten older the more energy I feel like I have.” He said with a relieved smile. 

They started to slowly walk back to the Shack, relieved the stress was residing. 

“It felt weird..having more than one pair of eyes, have you had four eyes before? Or even more?” 

“Yeah actually, I’ve even had two mouths, eight arms, and like… huge enough to hold Connie in the palm of my hand… well..our hand, I was fused with all my three moms. And I had four arms when I fused with my dad.” 

The rest of the walk Steven told Ford about his different fusions, and when Gems fuse their Gem changes, Ruby and sapphire make Garnet, and Amethyst and pearl make opal, and that when he fuses with other Gems he also becomes different entirely. When he fuses with humans, the identity is still Pink Diamond, but whichever name they come up with. 

Before the memories came washing in Steven told him that he thought it was really cool, he felt really smart. Of course, Stevonnie was smart, but Dr. S was extremely smart. He felt like he could even help Connie through college. 

They spoke for a while before they got to the Shack. Eventually the mood lightened, and they were talking stories they had or heard. 

“So this...kid..Onion?...you don’t know if he’s a human?”

“I literally have NO IDEA, like Where are your ears? Why don’t you age? Why are you so prone to crriimmmee” Steven said exaggerating his curious frustration. 

They spoke of the enigma that was Onion for some time. 

Soon they arrived at the Shack. There was no tourist group, and not even any customers, it almost looked closed. 

“Oh hey dudes, you were gone for a while, it was crazy packed before, but it’s real quiet now.” 

“Yeah, we accompanied each other on a walk through the forest”

“Were you by any chance that guy with four eyes who was in here earlier? Grunkle Stan told us you fused” Dipper said with a scrunch to his brow, already having a journal in his hand. 

“Yes!” Ford said a little too enthusiastically. 

“I knew it!” Mabel said excitedly

“What do you mean Fuse? like … the electrical thing?” Soos said from behind the register. 

“Oh, not like that, like making a milkshake” Mabel offered. 

Prompting a weird look from Soos, then Mabel added 

“But with people”. 

Now Soos looked disgusted, along with everyone in the room. 

“No no..it’s just two people, becoming one person…” Steven paused mid explanation   
“I’m half alien, it’s something we can do” 

“Oh, that’s tight dude” 

The sun was going down, and they were getting ready to close the shop when suddenly, they heard yelling coming from outside. 

“SOOS” 

They sounded panicked. They suddenly swung the door open. 

“Melody! Sweetie, you okay?” Soos said as he ran to her. 

“It’s the baby! It’s coming” Melody said before filling the room with a scream. 

“Now..it’s okay… uh we just need to drive to the hospital” Soos said, starting to fill with panic. 

“No don’t you remember? It broke down.. I walked here” She breathlessly, then screaming again. Literally only two minutes apart. 

It’s too late. 

“Why didn’t you call me? I would have left early?” 

“There’s no time” 

Everyone in the shack felt panicked. 

Dipper passed out. 

“I’ve only done this once before, but the person wasn’t really human….I’m sure it’s similar..” Ford said trying to reassure the room.   
“Okay um, can you get over to the table?” He said but then looked over at her, she was curled in a ball on the floor.   
“Uhm…” 

“I got it” Steven said as he picked up Melody and carried her over to the table. 

She got slightly undressed and was laying on the table.

“But what about the table?” Stan said, he was panicked from the situation, but he also thought about the fact that

they eat at that table. 

“I’ll buy you a better one” Steven said with a firmness to his voice, that Stan thought this was not just a bluff. 

Soos was holding her hand, with panic and excitement.   
"you can do this Melody, you're already a super great mom" 

"And you're going to be a great dad! and I'm going to be a grandpa!" Stan said very excited. Despite not actually being Soos's dad, he had basically adopted him at this point. 

Melody screamed again, and everyone gave them some space. 

“Okay Melody, I’m going to need you to push”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Papa Soos :D


	13. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven's here to help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a pretty mundane chapter 
> 
> Serious topics in the end, you can end the chapter after Steven falls asleep if you don't want to read it.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

“Melody, repeat after me” he breathed in slowly and out slowly. Steven tried staying at the top half and working as emotional support. 

“When the pain comes back, you need to push” Ford said calmly to Melody. 

Almost an hour passed, and still no baby, just screaming and pain. Everyone in the room had washed their hands by then and were wearing sterile clothes that Ford had in a cabinet. Ford was wearing gloves. 

“I can’t...I can’t do this…” She said breathlessly. This was the worst pain she had ever experienced, felt like she was being ripped in half. 

“Yes you can, you can do this, we all believe in you!” Steven said while his hand was being squeezed with all of her might. 

Soos was supporting her neck and trying to hold her leg for support. 

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” 

“The head is coming out- Melody, stop pushing..uh... Steven, I need your help” 

Steven looked up at Ford’s face, who looked a little concerned.   
Steven went over, there was blood everywhere and a whole baby head was already out, but the umbilical cord was wrapped around their neck. 

“I need your help, we need to deal with this accordingly, to prevent further complications. I need you to get spit on the baby or something as a precaution, and hold a finger in between the neck and the cord so I can get something sterile to cut it.” 

Steven was soon left alone with the baby, and a lot closer to Melody than he had ever planned, considering he’s only known her for this last hour. 

Ford soon came back with a red hot pair of scissors, and focused to make sure not to touch the baby with them. He cut it. 

“Okay Melody, Push” 

Steven’s hands were still on the baby, and held on as she came out. He gently Held the baby and looked down at it’s little slimy face and then placed her on Melody. 

Soos ran over to where the baby was, he was smiling and crying. Melody was not yet crying, she was relieved that the pain was over, but soon started crying. 

Stan had his hand on his face to hide he was crying, but it was very obvious from his shoulders bouncing up and down. 

After everything had come out, Ford was ready to patch things up, when he remembered Steven. 

“Here, lick this.” Ford said to Steven, handing him a napkin. Steven licked it then handed it back to Ford, who used it to dab where the baby came, healing a tear and making the blood evaporate. Melody immediately was relieved from pain, and could fully enjoy the joy of holding her baby. Ford cut the rest of the umbilical cord off from the baby, then dabbed it with napkin, the extra umbilical cord closest to the baby fell off and there was a completely healed belly button. 

“Fascinating,” Ford said to himself. 

Melody was covered up again, and the baby was wrapped in a nice baby blanket that Stan had gotten, but had forgotten to give it to them.

“So dudes, meet Francisca, or Franny, or Panchita, we chose the name months ago...She’s named after my Abuelida”. He was still very teary eyed, but happiness was mixed sadness  
“I wish she had the chance to meet her…”. 

She had only died a few months ago, but it still felt pretty fresh to him. She was so happy when they told her that the baby was going to be a girl and that they were going to name the baby after her…

“I mean..ghosts exist...there’s still a chance?” Stan said, trying to be reassuring. 

“Oh right, sick” a little of the sadness washed away. 

“Oh my gosh...we never had a baby shower, did we?” Mabel said while entering the room with Dipper, who was relieved that the calamity was over. 

“Oh..no you’re right...and I don’t think we even bought anything...oh my gosh...we’re totally not prepared…” Melody felt bad. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it” Steven said, and all the eyes looked at him 

“Okay..um...bye” and he turned pink and zoomed out of the Shack. The store nearby was open, but it was past sundown, so technically he should not be out, but the police didn’t seem to be patrolling. 

His glow disappeared and he walked into the store and paused… what exactly do babies need?… He pulled out his phone

*beeeeeeeep…….beeeeeeeeep…….beeeeeee-* “hello?” a groggy Connie had answered the phone. The difference between time zones had not yet dawned on him.

“Hey Connie, do you think you could help me really quick” 

“Is everything okay?” 

“Yeah, just, I just helped deliver a baby, and I was wondering...what are baby essentials for people who just had a baby at home and have no supplies?” 

“You helped deliver a baby??” Connie was more awake now. 

“Yeah, but that’s not the point..what do they need?” 

“I’m going to go over, I’m bringing my mom with me, she should check on the baby” 

“Okay but what do they neeed???” 

“Uh… diapers, formula if they aren’t breastfeeding, blankets to swaddle, clothes, a bassinet if they don’t have somewhere for the baby to sleep, bottles for specifically newborns, again, if they aren’t breastfeeding. Soap, a little nose and mouth sucker thing that should be in the baby isle, socks, mittens, maybe, baby wipes, and Ice cream I guess for the parents.” 

“Thanks Connie, I love you!” 

“I love you too, I may be there when you get back orI maybe have left already” 

Steven ran around, trying to find everything Connie just said, literally everything. He grabbed a chart and filled it with a new bassinet, newborn sized clothes, swaddle blankets, diapers and wipes, baby body soap and shampoo, brand new fancy stroller, and everything else,   
Last thing he needed ice cream.   
“Your total is...eight hundred and seventy two.” 

“Okay, thanks” 

He got a huge bag that held all the smaller ones, and held the big things under his arms. Turned pink and zoomed back. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He walked back into the house to see Connie was there with her mom, who was checking out the baby, making sure everything worked accordingly. 

“So far I see no problems, they are the correct size and weight, still go to the doctors tomorrow to do a more thorough exam, I’m sure Steven could help if anything happens in the meantime. Do you have anything to put them in?” 

“I just got some diapers” he said as he dug through one of his many bags and pulled out a box. 

As Soos and Melody got everything situated, Steven said good bye to Connie and her mom. 

As soon as they left Steven was greeted with one question. 

“Did you just rob the store?” Stan asks as he was looking at all the bags and boxes that Steven had brought into the house. 

“What? No.” Steven said slightly on the defensive side. 

“This is like...several hundreds of dollars worth of stuff, and I’m sure you haven’t even been given a paycheck yet” 

“I didn’t steal, I have my receipt, but um...anyway, let’s see what there is…Melody? Soos?” Melody got up and looked over at the bags of stuff, Soos walked over a little slower since he was holding his baby. 

“Oh Geez dude, this is like, a lot dude” He said looking up at Steven, then Melody. 

“No guys, don’t worry about it” Steven said with his palms pointing out in a ‘stop’ motion.   
“I’m happy to help” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After about fifteen minutes of trying to convince them they he did not steal and that it is fine, they stopped.   
Stan offered for them to spend the night, and Dipper noted that there weren’t any rooms available. Steven willingly offered his room, and Soos got started on putting the bassinet together. Melody let Stan hold the baby, in which he did not want to give her back, he just wanted to stare at her face and cry, just a little. 

Everyone got a chance to hold the baby, and Mabel got pictures of all of it. Even the crying and goofy faces. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Instead of making it upstairs for another sleepover, Steven passed out on the couch. 

Soos, Melody, and their baby girl were all asleep in the room where Steven had been staying. 

Stan and Ford were leaning by the sink, they were going to sit at the table, but then they remembered. 

“SO, what a day” Stan said quietly but loudly. In a way. 

“Oh, tell me about it…” Ford said, glancing over to Steven’s direction. 

“Oh, right, you and the kid..kinda did a thing today...what was it...fuseee….” 

“Fusion, Stanley.” 

“Yeah..that, how was it?” 

“It was amazing, exciting, and I felt so powerful...and that kid...there is so much he can do...he has so many powers that can use, but so many he tries not to...I don’t think you’ve seen him get all big and pink, but he does when he gets really overwhelmed… he panics like Dipper and Mabel used to...he’s been through a lot..he’s done a lot…. He tried something that we were scared of Dipper doing...” Even though a part of his mind was thinking of what he had done to other people, or what his power could do, he was worried about him more than anything else.

“Oh geeze… you mean like he tried to…” and he made a small gesture..

“Yeah.. but he heals immediately… he tried shattering his gem but… it didn’t work, and his family found him like that. He was just.... scared he’ll hurt someone again.” 

“Oh...wow…” Stan glanced over at Steven’s sleeping body. He felt pained.   
“Why...why are you telling me this…?” 

“I’m...not sure. When we were fused, I felt all his pain...and … it just reminded me of a lot of things… and I’m worried about him… I really care about him, which is odd because I feel like we just met him but now..it feels like I’ve known him for years...It’s complicated”   
“No, I get it, you guys were all mush in a blender, it’s like you’re basically related now.” 

“heh...I guess…” 

“Well Sixer, we should go to sleep. We Don’t know what kind of day tomorrow will be, but we should close the Shack for the day...c’mon let’s go” 

“Yeah…”   
They both headed towards their rooms, and got ready to go to sleep. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steven was suddenly awakened by a small quiet crying. He panicked and looked around the pitch blackness of the living room, he was alone, where was the crying coming from? 

‘Oh right, the baby’  
He heard quiet talking 

“Hey, it’s okay, we’re here, mommy and daddy will always be here for you, kiddo” Soos quiet voice traveled to the living room. Then followed quiet humming that sounded like Melody. The crying went back down, and Steven was met once again with silence. 

Even though a part of him still felt resentful towards his mom, a part of him wondered if she would have sung him back to sleep when he’d cry. Or if the gems would be happier if she was still here… He pulled out his phone and dialed. It must have been four in the morning in beach city, or something like that, Steven wasn’t sure, but he hoped for the best. 

“Hello?” 

“Dad...I love you…” 

“I love you too Steven, are you okay?”

“Yeah...just… wanted to hear your voice...I’m sorry… I know it’s late…” 

“It’s fine Stu-ball” 

“Thanks… Do you think mom... would have..like me…?” 

“She loves you…” Even though finding everything out about Rose he still believed that she meant that she’ll love Steven.

“ o...okay…. I’ll let you go….Good night…” 

“Good night, sweet dreams” 

He hung up the phone and laid there in silence for a while, he felt like he was being watched, but he forced himself to ignore it, and he soon fell into a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could never be...  
> I could never be...  
> I could never be ready for this... 
> 
> Things start and things end   
> and isn't it lovely in theory but...


	14. Good Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A human, A hybrid, and a baby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for stopping by

Steven woke up to crying, the baby had woken up but was not happy. He checked his alarm and it was going to be going off in about five minutes. Before Steven had fallen asleep, he brought his duffle bag out with his meds. 

Time came and went, he took his meds, but the baby was still crying. The short while Steven went up to get water, Melody and Soos now took up the living room. Melody was trying to sing or hum but it wasn’t calming the baby. Steven tiredly glanced at his room then looked back at the living room. He quietly walked into the room and was met with some very tired looking parents. 

“Good morning dude, so we’re taking up your space, we’re just trying everything…” Soos said, he looked tired 

“Yeah..we had to wake up every two or three hours to feed her and often she wouldn’t go back to sleep..” Melody said. 

“Do you mind if I try something?” Steven said hesitantly, he knew they were able to do it, but they also looked extremely exhausted. 

“Um..sure” they handed him the crying baby, and he copied some of their actions, small tapping on the back and swaying side to side.  
“Could I kiss the top of her head? If she has any pain it’ll help” 

“Uh sure dude,” Soos said, he heard Steven was part alien and such, but he didn’t really know what he could do. 

He kissed the baby, and it did in fact help with some pain, she was still overwhelmed. Soos sat down on the couch with Melody on his lap. Steven thought about what he could do and he thought of something. 

‘I can sing’ 

He started off humming something he made up on the spot, and it was soothing, he started singing something that he thought described the mood. Something about the baby, and that she was loved in a world so beautiful. Once he was done singing, he looked over and saw that Soos and Melody had passed out. They were fast asleep. The baby had fallen asleep, and now Steven was left alone with her. He didn’t really know what to do. He decided to just hold the baby, and sit on the bed, and just write doodle pictures.

Steven drew a picture of the baby in his arms, and he started singing a little bit. Just a quiet song

“Go down to the ocean,  
The crystal tide is rising  
Water’s gotten higher  
as the shore washes out.  
Keep your eyes wide open,  
Even when the sun is blazing  
The moon control the tide  
It may cause you to….”  
Steven paused, he didn’t really want to think of drowning babies.  
“Everything stays right where you left it  
Everything stays but it still changes  
Ever so slightly  
Daily and nightly  
In little ways  
When everything stays…” 

He continued to hum the tune of the song to the baby, he stopped drawing alright and was just looking at the baby. He started wondering what his dad thought when he was born, was he ever this small? Or was he just born a little bigger...he didn’t really know. How did his mom even make him...lots of magic? If it was just his dads...ew. Steven decided to stop thinking about it. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Mabel was upstairs awake in bed. She was petting waddles and looked at her brother who was still sleeping. It’s too early. She’s used to sleeping in for like a whole extra hour and a half. She was just sitting in her tank top and fluffy pajama bottoms and rainbow socks on. 

She was thinking about the night, and how hectic everything was. She thought about Steven being pretty calm given the stress of the situations. Maybe he was used to stressful situations. 

She glanced over and her brother, then looked over to his journal that was slightly under the pillow next to him. She walked over quietly, and slowly slid it out from under him. It’s not like he wouldn’t let her look, but she just wanted him to sleep. She flipped through some of the pages and found the page about Steven. She read everything and Dipper made some small additions involving his conversation with Steven. 

After she was done she put it back and grabbed a cardigan that she had by her door so she could leave her room. Mabel headed out to take a shower when she heard singing coming from down stairs. She walked to the living room and saw Soos and Melody sleeping on the couch.  
She started wondering where the baby was when she heard humming. She couldn’t place who the voice belonged to, but she figured out it was coming from Steven’s room. His door was left open. 

Steven was sitting when Mabel walked up to the door and saw Steven with the baby. 

“Steven,” she whisper-yelled to get his attention. 

“Oh hey Mabel, you’re up early” Steven whispered back, barely looking up. 

“Yeah, I wanted to see how the new family was doing” Mabel said as she entered the room, she awkwardly leaned against the wall the door was on. 

“You wanna sit down” he said as he used his head to gesture to the available space next to him. 

“Yeah…” she sat down “so, how are you doing?” Mabel said with a slight concern to her voice. 

“I’m okay, I mean I didn’t just have a baby or anything” Steven said while looking down at the sleeping baby. 

“Yeah I know that..just..in general? How are you?” 

“Eh, I’m doing okay, I feel pretty relaxed right now...I don’t think I’ve ever held a baby this small… or for this long.” 

“Yeah.. have you and Connie ever talked about having kids?” 

Steven quickly looked up  
“what? No...not really… I mean it would be nice to have a family together one day, but we haven’t talked about it” 

“Well seeing Stevonnie, I’m sure you’ll have cute kids” 

Steven blushed a little “aha thanks” 

“So...Steven, I have a question, like a more serious one” 

Steven didn’t look away from the baby, he hoped it wasn’t too serious, he had to force himself to stay calm. 

“Uh… s-sure.” 

“Do..you like your mom?...I’ve heard that lots of people tried killing you for what she did...and the expectations people placed on you…” 

Steven thought for a minute, he knew Dipper was the one who told her, but he did tell him he could tell her about him. 

“I….I guess? It’s complicated… most of my life the gems, they saw her as their leader, she was, in fact, the leader of the rebellion on homeworld and the leader of the crystal gems and such and such, and she could heal wounded gems and fought for Earth, and they expected me to do everything she could, they had very high expectations...y’know?” Mabel just nodded  
“But being the leader of the rebellion she had homeworld enemies that wanted to kill her...and after finding out I had her gem, many called me ‘rose quartz’ and tried killing me... I was put on trial for the murder of Pink Diamond, who was a galactic dictator, and I really thought that I had to deal with her consequences to protect my friends...but turned out she was Pink Diamond the whole time...she left someone in a garden for sixthousand years and then they came to Earth trying to kill it, and wipe my friend memories….theres more bad stuff that she did that...I had to deal with but….it’s just a lot...I’m sure if she was still around..then maybe..I could talk to her...get some closure.” 

“I see...Do you think you will ever forgive her?” 

“I’m not sure...probably down the line… but so much is still fresh...it’s hard to imagine it right now…” 

“Okay...y’know we don’t expect anything from you? I mean I know you work at the shack now, so I mean...those are expectations, but hopefully you know what I mean.” she felt like she was stumbling over her words. She was, but just a little. 

“Yeah I get what you’re saying..hey um… after Soos or Melody take the baby back, do you want to go to the store with me? I need to go buy your Grunkle a new table, and I want to go buy some clothes? I’ll buy you something if you want?” 

“What? You just bought a crap ton of stuff for the baby and you want to go buy more stuff?” her voice raised in pitch but stayed the same quiet volume. 

“I have money, I just don’t want to look super loaded because then people try to make me buy stuff for them, but when I want to, then it’s fine” 

“Oh..then sure yeah, I’ll go with you, but I don’t think I could ask you to get me something” She said trying to politely reject his offer. 

There was suddenly a commotion in the living room. Melody and Soos were looking for their baby, they kind of forgot that Steven was holding her. A panicked Soos ran past the door, stopped and backed up. 

“Oh my gosh dude, we were like super freaked out, we forgot you had her...how long were we asleep?” 

Steven looked down at his phone and back up 

“Like an hour” 

“Oh okay…” Soos went over and scooped his sleeping baby out of Steven’s arms  
“Thanks dude...we really needed that nap...even though we didn’t ask..sorry” 

“No it’s fine, if you ever need a babysitter, just let me know?” Steven said with a smile. 

“Cool” and Soos left, leaving Mabel and Steven alone. 

“So, we can get breakfast while we’re out if you want to go soon? I mean we have to get ready of course” Steven said with a smile.

“Yeah, sounds fun”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who wants to go shoppiinngggg?
> 
> Sorry this is so late, it's been hectic, but got some time to myself, so yay :D  
> (writing is my only me time, and I love it) 
> 
> Song is everything stays by Rebecca Sugar.


	15. Out and About

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mabel and Steven have a fun.   
> Until they don't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning. someone drops the F bomb, and harsh homophobia and voilence and hints of sexual assult, if you want to skip, stop reading at the Arcade and read again after the ziggy zaggy "/\/\/\/\/\"   
> Small summary at end if you want.

“So you’re telling me...you made watermelons who formed their own society...and they are Steven shaped?” 

“Oh, and there's dogs, birds, sharks...and I don't remember if there were fish or not...” he said with a finger on his chin. 

“And that’s all from your spit?” 

“Aha yeah, I’m sure I can make you something later, but we just gotta hope it comes out like an animal and not a person” he gritted his teeth towards the end, he remembered when he kind of destroyed the green house. Not kind of.

“Oh cool! Wait...Waddles likes watermelon...Maybe not the best idea.” She felt bad for not bringing Waddles with her, but she usually didn’t take Waddles to clothing stores. 

They kind of dressed up for their day out. Steven wore a green short sleeve button up with a bunch of small daisies and sunflowers all over it, with cuffed blue jeans and his flip flops. Mabel wore a bright yellow sundress, with sun’s wearing sunglasses lined up at the bottom of the skirt. She calls it her ‘sun sundress’ respectively. It was pretty hot in Gravity Falls that day. 

After they were done eating, Steven paid, and they left the diner. Even though it would have been just as easy to walk, they decided to drive. Steven didn’t really want to draw attention to himself. 

The inside of Steven’s car was not as messy as she thought it would be. She’s been in guys' cars before, most of the time they were littered with trash. It just had a pillow and a blanket folded in the back seat. 

It was too early for her to pay attention last time. 

“Hey you wanna play some music? You can go on the internet if you wanna.” he said as he handed over his phone. 

She didn’t really go through his songs, cause she knew it was a smaller band, and that he probably wouldn’t have it. As he started pulling out and driving towards the store she put a song on, as soon as the guitar of the song started playing Steven’s eyebrows raised. 

“Teens by day, we’re alright  
Teens by day, but every night we’re  
Sadie killer and the suspects”  
The song kept going on in the background. 

“SO do you like it?” Mabel said with a smile on her face. She looked at Steven with his brows raised and watching the road.   
“Yeah, it’s great” He said without looking at her, he did love the song, but it still made him sad that the band broke up, sure Buck was already in medical school, so they won’t really get back anytime soon. 

“I’ve been listening to them for like...three years now? The band broke up a little over a year already, but it still bums me out” 

“Oh tell me about it...when they told me I was bummed, but I cried about it later when they were gone... I..probably shouldn’t have said that...” He said with his brows scrunched together staring at the road. 

“When THEY told you? You mean like when they told the public or...they told you?” Mabel said trying to search Steven’s face for hints before he could say. He looked over for a small second then back on the road. 

“No yeah, they told me, we’re...uh... friends” He didn’t want to sound like a jerk or anything, he glanced over at Mabel from the side of his eye. She had been pretty quiet. 

“Oh...my...GOOOSSSSSSHH” she screamed, causing Steven to swerve the car a little bit.   
“Oh sorry” she said as Steven straightened out. “You’re serious?” 

“Yeah” They talked the rest of the way to the store about the beginning of the band, his dad being their manager, and how he’s still Sadie’s manager. What the suspects are up to now. She was so excited to hear about them, and everything, he told her to click on a specific album on his phone of just pictures of the band and backstage and in personal life. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steven looked around the store, in all different sections, he knew he needed a new jacket, so he just checked out his options. 

“Hey what’s your style, you seem to have some sort of hipster thing going on? But all your pictures from back at home you’re wearing the same clothes, or types of clothes.” Mabel said digging through the jackets on the rack. 

“Uh...mmm..anything? Rocker, hipster..uh….I’m not sure, anything everything” He said with a shrug. 

“Anything like...mmm..this?” She said gesturing to her own outfit. She doubted he’d say yes because so far he’s dressed in a pretty similar style. Very hipstery. 

“Yeah, I’d wear something like that” He said with a very genuine smile. 

“Really?” She said surprised. “Do you think I can pick out some outfits for you?”   
He responded with a smile and a nod, and off to a different part of the store she ran. 

While she was gone, he found a black hoodie with “I’m trying my best” on it, and threw it in the car. He also found a pink jacket with blue left arm, a yellow right arm, and a white hood. He looked at it for a while, it reminded him a lot of the Diamonds, and he was a diamond after all, and he has gone and visited them with a family therapist. Several times. The diamonds want to make up for it since they do love Steven. There have just been some one on one with White Diamond, since caused a more lasting trauma. He decided to get it, if he changed his mind, he could just give it to Spinel, see what she thinks. He grabbed a few shirts and flannels, and threw them in the growing pile. 

“Stevennn, how about these? I picked out a bunch, thoughts?” She said while handing him a few dresses. They were all different styles and colors. 

“Mmm, I’ll go try them on really quick, you can come with me if you want?” 

“Yessss!” 

He tried on a bunch, and she cheered him on for each dress. He only decided to only get one. They walked around the story a while longer, they grabbed a few more things like some flower crowns and some makeup. She went back and grabbed a matching dress to the one Steven chose, so that they could match. Steven also grabbed coffee, and some extra pens for Dipper and Ford. He also bought two shirts saying ‘cool Mom’ and ‘cool Dad’ and a diaper bag for Soos and Melody. And of course he got the new table. 

Before he left, Steven and Mabel changed into their new dresses. They put everything in the car and decided to stop by the arcade. It was really fun, there were some games that Steven recognized from Funland, but a lot that he didn’t know. They were having fun until some asshole tourists came. 

“Hey guys, we got some princesses over here” One guy said, calling his friends’ attention. There were now about eight guys now coming to where they were in the arcade. They were cornered. Steven put himself in front of Mabel. Protecting her. 

“I don’t know man, I’m pretty sure one is a homo” one guy said with a smirk.   
“Aha don’t you mean a faggot?” a different guy said, prompting all of the other guys to laugh. 

“C’mon Mabel let’s go home” he said gently taking her hand and trying to get past the guys, but his way was blocked by two guys. 

“No no, you can leave the girl, you obviously have no need for her” said one of the guys, while another tried grabbing Mabel from Steven, and she held onto Steven’s hand. Steven was trying really hard not to stay calm and deal with it in a normal fashion. 

However four guys surrounded Steven and they successfully grabbed Mabel.   
“No Mabel,” He tried reaching out for Mabel, but two of the guys were holding Steven, holding him against the wall. 

“You should know better than to go around looking the way you do, it’s like you want people to beat you up, you’re a disgrace” A guy said looking Steven right in the face. 

He looked over at Mabel struggling to get out of the grips of two guys, he started glowing pink  
“Let us go now, or else” Steven knew he could handle every single one of the guys, but he would severely hurt them if he let out his anger.

“Or else what? Mmh?” said the guy in front of him, He glanced back over to Mabel, who was being carried out of the arcade. 

“Or else you’re fucked” and he pushed himself off of the wall, which caused the guys holding him onto the wall to slam into an arcade machine and the guys in front of him to fall onto the floor and into each other. 

He then ran after Mabel, and he caught up incredibly fast. He quickly swooped in and grabbed Mabel from in between the guys. However instead of just running back to the car or back home, he stopped and held Mabel behind him and turned back around to face the offenders. 

Steven was extraordinarily pissed. He was really trying to not be so mad. He probably would have been fine if it was just him, but when they threatened Mabel. He was done. 

He honestly could not think of anything to say to them, he was just so mad. When they realized they no longer had Mabel, one charged at Steven. And was stopped short. 

Steven grabbed him by his shoulders and threw him at the other man. Which caused them to both fall back an extra fifty feet and slam on the ground. 

They were groaning in pain on the floor, but Steven was just standing still. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Mabel was looking at Steven, he was glowing pink and a lot taller than usual. He was just frozen there, breathing heavily. 

“S-Steven?” Despite the fear that was just coursing through her veins, she was concerned for Steven. Seeing that he was left alone in the arcade with six guys, and now just took out two more. 

He turned around and looked at her, his eyes full of concern but… his eyes… she thought  
They don’t look the same..the greenish brown color they usually were was replaced with pink..and his pupils were white. He ran over to her and gently hugged her

“Are you okay?” he said as he looked down at her. 

She looked at him ‘his eyes have diamonds..’ she thought.   
“Y-yeah...are you..?” 

“Yeah, I’m okay” He said as he glanced over at the guys trying to get off of the ground. 

“but..Steven..why do you look..different…?” 

He let go of the hug. 

“I...I’m sorry…” he took a few deep breaths and slowly shrunk back down. 

After some time, Steven finally faded in color. 

“You..want to head back home..?” Mabel said while pulling at her hair. 

“Yeah…” 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
The car ride was quiet. Mabel was staring out the window and Steven was just trying to focus on driving. Despite the whirlwind of thoughts going through his head. 

They walked into the house. 

“Hey kids, you have a fun day out?” Stan said as they entered the room.   
They stayed silent for a bit, but Stan could tell from the look on their faces that something was wrong.   
“Are you okay?” He said as he approached Mabel. 

She thought she would be fine, she was really trying to be, but him asking her if she was okay, kind of just knocked down the dam that was building up behind her eyes. 

She reached out and hugged Stan and just started sobbing. He hugged her and just looked at Steven, who’s face just looked like he saw a dead body, he couldn’t talk. He avoided Stan’s gaze. He was frozen in his spot. He felt like he should have done more, acted sooner, protected Mabel better. 

More people came into the room to check on Mabel and Steven just left. He walked out of the house and just walked straight into the woods. He didn’t run, or turn pink, he just slowly walked. 

There was a small clearing, with a log laying on it’s side, and he decided to sit down. He rested his face in his palms. His sort of felt numb. He felt ashamed, if anything. The silence and the darkness his palms brought caused him to slowly drift off to sleep. 

“That could have gone better” 

Steven shot awake, no one was around him. But that voice...it sounded familiar...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Homophobes and assholes approch Star kids and Steven get's in a fight. kind of. Mabel is almost attacked in a bad way. 
> 
> 1-800-656-4673 (sexual assult hotline)   
> I can't find the other one... just..get help if you need help. please.   
> if you just want someone to talk it out with you can message me on instagram @mother_mortician_
> 
> (Technically still saturday, at least for me in California, hopefully I'll go back to posting earlier tomorrow)


	16. Actions have consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> woulda, coulda, shoulda. Didn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good thing the security cameras were in black and white.

He examined his surroundings, it was mostly woods but there was something he saw between the trees. 

A statue. 

He got closer and saw it was a triangle with an outstretched hand wearing a hat. He stumbled back. Falling onto his butt. 

It was Bill. 

Or what was left of him. 

He looked around and he realized he was a lot further in the woods than he thought he was. He looked back at the statue, and glared. ‘That's whose voice it was’ he thought to himself. He recognized the voice from Dipper’s dream and Ford’s memory. Looking at it just made him angry. 

“Did you really talk to me or am I going crazy?” Steven said angrily at the statue. 

Nothing. 

He proceeded to glare at it for another five minutes until he accepted he wasn’t going to get a response. 

He thought he should ask Ford about this later. Trying to get his bearings, Steven jumped into the air, high above the evergreens. He found the shack far in the distance. He made a mental note about his current location to tell Ford. 

He proceeded to walk back to the shack. Despite all the thoughts that were going through his head involving Bill, walking home reminded him of what happened with Mabel and him. He slowly made his way to the Shack. The shack was closed that day so at least he didn’t have to worry about seeing anyone outside of the family. 

There was a police car outside of the Shack. Steven cautiously walked in. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Apparently the tourists had called the cops and gave descriptions and gave them Mabel’s name. Saying she was with someone who beat them up for no reason. However, while explaining to the cops they called Steven what they called him to his face. Causing Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland to cuff them and take them to the station. They checked the security cameras proving that they were the antagonizers, and came to the shack to see how Mabel and this mysterious guy wearing a dress were doing. See if they wanted to press charges. 

Mabel hadn’t talked much. She was laying in her room when the police came. She didn’t even tell her grunkles what happened. 

“So you’re saying...they held Steven down and tried carrying Mabel away…” Ford said Sternly. His back facing the police. 

“Yes, and all their actions and words were recorded, so prosecuting them would be easy… although the kid left them in pretty bad condition…” said Sheriff Blubs. 

“Serves them right, if I ever see their faces, I’d make sure they’d end up in the hospital.” Stan said glaring at the floor. 

“We’re going to act like we didn’t hear ya say that” Deputy Durland said while lowering his notepad.   
“And most of them are in the hospital” As the officer said that Steven walked in. They had not yet noticed him.   
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

He was frozen after he entered the room. They were in the hospital? His stomach dropped along with his heart. 

“He’s not in trouble for that, he was acting in self defence. The kids' injuries will heal, a few broken bones” 

“A few months of healing, max, then maybe they’ll learn their lesson and not be such homophobic A holes” One officer glared and then looked softly at the other. 

No matter how glad they sounded that the guys were hurt, Steven hated himself. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. No matter how bad they were. He leaned against the wall and slowly slid down. He knew if he tried getting to his room they’d notice him. He stared into nothingness of the void. The words of conversation from another room were hitting him like hail. He was glowing pink, but his size stayed the same. 

His hearing started dimming out, till all he heard were echos of whispers, incomprehensible. His thoughts became a loud roar in his ears. He had no choice, they were going to hurt Mabel… but he could have just grabbed her and left. He shouldn’t have let his anger get to him. He didn’t want to hurt anyone… but they were going to hurt Mabel...or worse.. He hugged his knees on the floor. His face was buried in his arms and his hands were squeezing at his shoulders. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Alright, well thank you officer, we’ll call and see what Mabel says” Ford says as the officers leave. 

Silence settled into the room and then a heavy sigh. 

“Wow…” Stan said as he was left alone with his brother. Well, he thought he was.   
“I’m glad Steven was there, but why did he let them take her in the first place?” He said with a slight huff. 

“Well I’m sure he didn’t want to hurt them, Stanley.” Ford said with a hint of sadness.   
“I’m sure you’re aware he is strong?” he said with a raised brow. 

“Well yeah I know he’s strong, he has carried Dipper and Mabel like it was nothing, and apparently sent like six guys to the hospital” He said matter of factly. 

“Well Stanley, he’s a lot stronger than we thought… if he was malevolent… he could have killed all of those boys without an effort.. He has to make an effort to hold back and restrain himself… he could destroy this house by just yelling...or even intense emotions could cause the house to cave in... if he wanted to he could lay waste to the entire planet… I know he could never let himself do that, he cares too much, and he cares about us immensely. I know he has a good heart and good intentions..If I had known about his powers alone, then I would make sure he stayed as far away as possible, or try to contain him. However, I know he is good, and he always tries to do what’s best. I’m sure the whole situation made him feel terrible…” 

Stan placed a hand on Ford’s shoulder and scrunched his eyebrows with concern. He didn’t know how he felt. He felt glad that Steven was good, but hoped Steven wouldn’t feel bad enough to explode. 

“I saw him when Mabel got here, but he’s disappeared… do..you think he’s okay?” Stan said, noticing the sun was already setting. It’s been hours since Mabel got home. 

“Maybe we should go look for him” 

“Sounds good…”

They went to get jackets and their shoes on, they brought a few weapons in case they ran into trouble in the woods. 

Stan had gotten back before Ford. He was met with an empty quiet room, waiting for his brother. Quiet? No, there was one sound. It was heavy breathing, and what sounded like whimpering. Crying… 

It didn’t sound like Mabel.

He walked towards where he thought the sound was coming from. As he approached there was a pink light glowing onto the surrounding surfaces. He walked a little further and found Steven. He was crying, his face in his lap and his hands were pulling at his hair. Stan couldn’t see his face but he was obviously crying, and trying hard to stay quiet. 

Ford walked into the room to see his brother with a pink tinted glow being shined onto him. He knew that meant Steven was in front of him, and that he in fact, was not doing okay. Stan looked up at Ford with a looked of worry on his face. He rushed over to them and stood next to his brother. 

“Steven?” Ford said gently, trying to get his attention. Squatting down to Steven's level. Steven looked up at Ford. Who was very relieved that Steven’s eyes weren’t diamonds. 

“How long have you been here, buddy?” Stan said gently. 

“I...I don’t know…” He really didn’t, he felt like he was in outer space. His crying had stopped, but seeing their concerned faces he just felt worse.   
“I’m so sorry…” he choked before he started crying again. 

“Hey kid, don't worry about it” Stan said trying to calm him down. 

“No...No...I should have protected Mabel better…. I should have responded faster...I should have just gotten her out of there...I just...I didn’t want to hurt anyone...an-an-an-and now those guys are in the hospital...an-an-and I-I can’t--” he swelled up causing a sound of pain to come out and he quickly shrunk back down. 

Ford just reached out and grabbed Steven and pulled him into a hug. Causing his color to fade away. He just cried into his jacket, but it slowly turned to sniffles... 

“I’m sorry…” 

“Steven it’s okay… You saved Mabel… you brought her home...we’re glad…” Stan said placing a hand on Steven’s back.   
“And for those guys...there was nothing else you could have done…” Stan said, part of him wished that Steven put them all in comas, but he understood that’s not how Steven felt. 

They stayed there for a while. Eventually the hug ended and they told Steven to head to bed. He complied. 

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Stan said after Steven closed his door. 

“Yeah… I think so” 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Mabel..You know you can talk to me…” Dipper said to his sister. “Please...I love you..I don’t like seeing you like this…” 

“I already told you what happened…” Mabel said from her bed. 

“But you haven’t told me how you feel…” 

“I just...feel...bad… Can I just go to bed…” she said as she rolled and faced the wall. 

“Mabel…” He said as he got up and placed a hand on her shoulder. 

“Please just leave me alone!” and swatted his hand away. She quickly looked at the expression on Dipper’s face.   
“I’m sorry…” and she reached out and hugged him. “I love you...I just need time…” 

“I understand…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sad kids :T   
> Ford is now Steven's grandpa. You can't change my mind. 
> 
> So guys it seems like I'll be posting more every night rather than midday.   
> Writing has been an escape. 
> 
> I love you guys, I hope you're all doing okay and staying safe. <3  
> My inbox is always open at instagram @mother_mortician_ 
> 
> (It's been chaotic here... on my home from a Bakery around the corner from my house, some guy crossed all the lanes to the wrong side of the street and tried ramming some peaceful protesters with his car right in front of me... then proceeded to try chasing them down in his car...someone was calling 911 when I tried rushing home...Lot's of anger and yelling out on the street that I could still hear when I got home...I just wanted to be home with my kiddo..)


	17. yeeaah-NO.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tying up some loose ends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone says the F word again.

*beep beep beep* 

He woke up and thoughtlessly headed to the kitchen to take his medications. The previous day had been a lot, he had felt a lot, and before actually falling asleep he talked to his therapist. They answered since they were out and in the office still. 

“Steven? How are you feeling today?” Ford said as Steven entered the kitchen. Steven drowsily looked up, blew a raspberry and proceeded to get a glass of water. Steven haddn’t made the connection that Soos and Melody and baby were gone, along with all their things.

He took his medications, and then looked back up at Ford who was looking at him like he was wearing a weird hat. He tapped the top of his head just in case he was accidentally wearing a hat. No hat. Why would there be a hat, Steven?

“Everything okay?” Steven drowsily slurred at Ford. Ford looked confused for a minute and then spoke 

“Yes I am fine, just worried about you, is all” he said while looking down into his coffee. Oh how much he loved coffee. Specifically coffee from this earth and dimension. Years without it made him appreciate it so much more after getting it back. 

“Oh…” Steven said while looking over at Ford’s cup of coffee.   
“Hey um… something happened yesterday… that I wanted to talk to you about…” 

“Is it about the incident yesterday?” Ford said sadly, staring into the void that was his coffee. 

“Well...in part… but it’s about what happened after...when I was alone...and gone…” Steven said while messing with the bottom of his shirt. Squeezing it in his hands. 

“Okay” Ford said as he glanced up at Steven then at the emptiness that the table should be at since Soos took it. 

“I...I think Bill tried talking to me in the woods…” Steven said while squinting his eyes, like expecting Ford to explode. 

His eyes shot up. His hand clenched at his mug handle.   
“Are you sure?” he said firmly. 

“I’m pretty sure...I fell asleep in the words...and I could have sworn I heard his voice...and when I woke up..I saw a statue that looked like him…” He felt like Ford was going to have a bad reaction. 

“Where was it?” He said, his brows scrunching with frustration.

“I don’t really remember..but I can show you” 

“Okay well, let’s get dressed and eat before our departure.” 

“Alright” 

~~~~~~~~~~

He got everything ready to go, he put on a black hoodie with a denim vest that had patches from different bands he liked, Sadie killer and the suspects, Mr. Universe, Sadie and Shep's band, and a few other new ones he had discovered. He put on his jeans and boots on and was ready to go. He decided to go check on Mabel before he left. He went up to their room and just found Dipper. 

“Hey have you seen Mabel?” 

“Uh..yeah, she’s in the bathroom” 

“Oh okay…..did she talk to you about what happened yesterday…?” 

“Yeah...and thanks...for getting her home safely…” 

“It couldn’t have happened any other way…” Steven said with a pain in his voice that Dipper noticed. 

They both looked to the doorway as Mabel walked in, but were shocked at what they saw. 

“Mabel…” Steven said. He couldn’t blink. He just looked, his brows raised.

“Your hair…” Dipper said. Both guys were very surprised. 

Mabel decided to cut her long hair to her shoulders. It looked good, she spent extra time to make sure it wasn’t lopsided. Sort of a Lob. 

“I needed a change,” she said, trying to convince them. They weren’t very convinced. 

“It...looks good Mabel,” Dipper said finally. The hair was gone, but it’ll grow back. 

“Yeah..looks good” Steven said, quietly. It did look good, but he remembered that Connie cut her hair when they stopped talking. When she was...unhappy. 

“So um...I’ll see you later Steven? Ford said you guys were going on a walk? At least that’s what I heard.” Mabel said with a small look up at the ceiling. That gave the impression she was honestly guessing. Given that they have been hanging out most mornings. The look also seemed like she just wanted Steven to leave. 

“Uh..yeah..” It seemed obvious to Steven that Mabel didn’t really want to talk at that moment. Maybe later. 

He left and headed down stairs and met up with Ford. 

“Hey Ford, are you ready?” Steven asked as he met up with Ford. He knew Ford was ready. He was wearing a black turtleneck, and a leather looking backpack with two buckles going down. 

“Yes, I’m bringing some extra things...just in case” He said, raising his shoulders a bit to make the backpack move. 

“Oh right..” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a relatively quiet walk. A few times Steven jumped above the trees to find his bearing, recall where it was. 

Finally they arrived. 

Ford immediately glared at the statue.   
“Fuck you” 

Steven looked over at Ford surprised to hear him curse. Ford looked over at Steven, and raised his brows a bit with a palm facing the sky.

“You understand” matter of factly. Steven, in fact, did.   
“So you said you heard him in your sleep...and you were sleeping here?” he said gesturing to the log. 

“Yeah, that’s right” 

“Okay..” and he took off his backpack and looked inside. He pulled out a tape measure. He gestured for Steven to hold it down at the log while he brought it closer to the stature. He looked at the measurement and wrote some stuff down in a notebook he had in his pocket. 

“Steven is it alright if we do a test...do you think you could fall asleep again where you did before, but this time, purposefully try to think of him. If it was just a mixed up memory, there will be no connection. I know you have good control so wake up if he makes contact, can you do that?” 

“Y-yeah okay…” he sat at the log and closed his eyes, focusing on connecting with Bill. 

Everything became dark as he fell asleep. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
Ford looked down at Steven, who now seemed to be asleep. He sat across from him furthest from the statue, but kept an eye on it, just in case. He watched Steven, hoping for nothing bad to happen. 

He was worried of Bill returning. However he knew that Steven could very easily destroy Bill, if he needed to… but thinking of Steven ‘destroying’ someone made his brows crease down to a frown. He knew Steven couldn’t get himself to do something like that. Unless he had no other choice, but it would wreak him.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Steven was focusing. 

“Woah, well would you look at that, someone entered my mind, that’s a surprise.” it was said all too sarcastically.   
“Look at you, Pink, you surprise me, I didn’t think you’d come back, and you brought Ford. wow, what a day.” 

“How are you still alive?” Steven said firmly. 

“Well, you see Pink, this right here” He manifested the stature and the surroundings “this is technically my body, can’t leave it. Pines may have destroyed my astro-self, but I’m still here. I’m just watching. It’s surprising no one has shaken my hand all these years. I mean you could shake my hand, and I can help you feel better, you won’t hurt anyone again” 

“Mmmmm no, I don’t think so” Steven said with a hand on his chin. 

“Oh c’mon, you won’t need medications anymore, you won’t feel constant dread hanging over you” 

“Yeah-no, not gunna happen, I know your schtick, You promise things and then boom, you use it for your own personal gain. You literally would kill everyone given the chance.” Steven said with a sarcastic anger to his tone. 

Bill floated closer to his face 

“Oh so you think you’re better than me?

Mr. Savior of the Universe? 

Tell me this, you ever kill anyone? Shatter them to pieces? Ever wanted to try it again? Because you have, I know. You liked how it felt shattering Jasper, so you WANTED to do it again. And to family? Tsk tsk tsk tsk. Doesn’t sound very nice to me, Pink” 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

While watching Steven, Ford noticed the expression on his face went from angry brows to pained. And he started glowing pink. Ford felt this meant that Bill was in fact, alive. He glanced over at the statue, no changes. Steven was starting to grow larger, and at that point he knew he had to wake him up. He shook him, no response, so he shook harder, and nothing. So he slapped Steven across the face. He hoped Steven would forgive him. 

Steven shot awake, his eyes were diamonds when he woke up but changed back to normal as having Ford there gave him comfort. His color faded back to normal. 

“So…?” Ford said trying to not push him, but also needed to know.

Steven cleared his throat.   
“So...THAT” he said while pointing to the statue “is his body, and he can’t leave it. I entered his mind...so that’s how I could talk to him. I heard him from here because... it’s like I could hear him from this distance if he talked, but he didn’t enter my mind...so that’s good…” 

“Yes… that is good...Do you know the risk of him escaping?” 

“Well he said something about shaking the hand and making a deal, then he could escape, but so far no one has touched him” 

“okay...Is there a way we could contain him?” 

“Mmmm well, I could put him in a bubble inside a bubble inside a bubble..then maybe put him in Lion? He has a little pocket dimension in his mane. He wouldn’t be able to get out unless I let him.” 

Although Ford had seen a small memory of this, he had completely forgotten due to the fact that there were much more troubling things he focused on. 

“Oh. alright, We could do that.” 

Steven bubbled Bill, then bubbled that bubble, then bubbled that bubble, so many times that it was difficult to make out that Bill was even in there. That was kind of the point. For protection, and so the kids didn’t see him. They brought him to the shack and into the basement. There was a small area that he was placed in that could not be disturbed. Thankfully the bubbles floated, or else they feared Bill may roll away. 

After that they went out to Steven’s car and grabbed the table out that he had gotten the previous day. While setting it up, Ford decided to ask 

“So..um...have you spoken to Mabel..since everything…?” Ford said trying not to sound like he's prying.

“Yeah...um..briefly? I saw she cut her hair to like here?” He said using his hand to gesture the shoulder length hair. 

“She what?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bill, what a jerk, ammirite?
> 
> hopefully you guys are taking care <3 
> 
> my inbox is still open on instagram @mother_mortician_


	18. Mr. Mystery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> no Soos? who's going to be Mr. Mystery now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to the party Mr. Mystery

It’s been five days since Steven and Ford contained Bill. That night, everyone was buzzing about Mabel's hair and how it looked good. Later that night Mabel opened up to Dipper about everything that happened, and how she felt. Talking about it was relieving. 

Steven did call Connie to see if she could send Lion, but she said she hadn't seen him in a few days, which was normal, since he usually did whatever he wanted. He’ll try again later. He seemed pretty secure. Only problem would be one of the kids seeing it. 

The mystery shack had been closed for a few days. Stan was giving Soos paternal leave, he was supposed to come back today. He called saying he was unable to come in, that being a dad was a lot more than he thought it was. Stan had already stated online that they were open again for the day. Soos called super early, so Stan had a few hours to think of a solution. Mabel was going to be going out to a friend’s house for a slumber party that night, Dipper and Ford were going to go on a nature hike, and Wendy was already manning the register.…. Hmmm. 

He hesitated. Then knocked at the door. There was a small rustle in the room and then the door opened. Steven’s hair was a lot messier than usual, he was just wearing gym shorts and a shirt saying “under the knife” with some medical looking pictures on it. He wasn’t used to waking up this early, it was close to five thirty in the morning but just not yet that time, and his alarm sets off at six thirty. Just a tad bit too early for him. 

Steven squinted his tired eyes in an attempt to focus. His eyebrows raised. 

“H-hey kid...I had a question about your shift today…” 

Steven made a small hum to basically say ‘yeah what about it’. 

“I was wondering if you could be Mr. Mystery today? Soos isn’t ready to come back to work, and I’m not really on payroll….” 

Only Steven’s eyes could express his emotions, his eyes widened, he raised a single eyebrow with a  
“Huh? Me?” 

“Yeeeeah...is that alright?”

Steven rubbed his eyes.  
“Does my shift still start at nine?” He said groggily.

“Yeah kid” Stan hoped he didn’t sound like a jerk. 

“Do I have to wear the suit?” said while glancing behind him to his room.

“well..I’m not sure you’ll fit in the one Soos wears….do..do.. you have a suit? I have the tie and such for you to wear” 

“I..do” Steven said with a squint to his eyes. ‘God what am I signing up for?’ he thought. 

“So you’ll do it?” asked, slightly squeezing his hands together. 

“Uh...yeah...but for now, I’m going back to sleep…” and turned back around without closing the door. 

“Y-yeah okay..good night” and closed the door for Steven who was already flopping himself back to bed. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

*beep beep beep beep* 

Steven woke up, greeted Ford who was sitting at the new table. It was a long-ish rectangle that had about six chairs around it. He took his meds then headed over to the bathroom to get ready. 

After his shower he decided to actually brush his hair, it was very long. Not super long, but looked long when it was brushed down over his forehead. After it dried though, it just went back to it’s previous poofy glory. He thought about gelling it back, but he wasn’t sure to make that decision until he got dressed. He went through his clothes and found his suit, which was among the few things he hung up. 

He thought back to why he bought the suit, he got the suit and a dress Connie picked out to wear, and took Connie out to a big fancy restaurant for their anniversary. They also stayed at a big fancy hotel… he decided to stop thinking about it and focus on getting ready. 

He put on his whole suit, minus the tie. He was wearing his nice fancy shoes. He looked at himself in the mirror, trying to hype himself up for the day. 

“Okay Universe, you got this, just act happy, mysterious, and cool… maybe do some gem things..that’ll wow them…. Mmmmmmokay! You can do this.” 

He walked out of his room and he walked back to the kitchen to get coffee before his shift. The room was empty. Seemed everyone left while he was getting dressed. He felt odd. Wearing a suit. Drinking coffee. Like a businessman. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stan came into the kitchen without even noticing Steven. He too, went back to sleep after Steven agreed. He poured himself a cup of coffee and turned around to see Steven staring into his coffee cup. 

He looked tired. Stan now felt really bad about waking him up so early. 

“Hey Steven, Mornin” 

Steven looked up from his coffee  
“Oh hey Stan, good morning” he said with a small smile. 

“So are you ready?” he said before taking a sip of his coffee. 

“yeah...I think so...I was thinking...maybe I could do a few gem things? Not like crazy gem things, but just stuff that could pass as magic tricks?” he says with his voice raising an octave at the end. Kind of trying to convince himself. He wanted to do cool stuff, that’ll impress tourists, so they’ll tell more people to come here. For the Pines’ sake. He also wanted to feel normal again. He was so used to doing gem-like things his whole life, he just recently stopped doing it in public since he started traveling. 

“Yeah! Sure! Well, as long as you wanna” she said with a small hand gesture to say ‘it’s okay if not’. 

“Cool, okay.” 

Stan did Steven’s tie, and tried the hat on that just...didn’t want to stay on past Steven’s thick hair. He decided to gel back his hair and wear the eye patch. He felt kind of silly. 

“Ready?” 

“Yeah” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wendy complemented Steven when she saw him,  
“Wow Steven you’re looking dashing as ever” 

“Why thank you Wendy” he said, along with that little hand thing he does when he says that. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally a tourist group. He decided a way to greet the group. 

Oh geez.

Steven took a deep breath. 

“Helloo everybody, and welcome to the mystery shack!” He said loudly to the group from on top of the roof. They all looked up.

And…

He jumps. 

They all gasp. 

And he floats down slowly, when his feet touch the ground he speaks

“I’m Mr. Mystery!” 

They all clapped.

The rest of the tour went pretty good. He engaged with the group, and told exciting stories of all the creatures that he had in the exhibit. He made them all up on the spot. At the end he got a lot of tips, which he formed a bubble around, and tapped to make it disappear. He just sent it to his bedroom. They loved it so much they gave him more money. 

He then repeated it a few more times. 

He didn’t jump off the roof every time, but he always tried started it out strong. 

He rolled into their view within his bubble, and popped it to make his opening. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the end of the day, Steven had twenty different bubbles full of money floating in his room. He wasn’t really sure what to do with them. 

Stan closed up early to give Steven a break, and also because Wendy had to get going. They’d be pretty low on staff. Stan blamed the staff thing, not that he wanted to let Steven to rest. 

“So have a good day?” Stan asked Steven at the table. 

Steven took off the tie and handed it to Stan, and unbutton his top collar button.  
“Yeeeeah… busy, but fun, surprisingly.” he said with a lopsided smile. He sat down and joined him at the table. 

Soon Dipper and Ford joined the table. 

They all shared what they had done that day, but there was a small pause after Dipper said  
“I wish Mabel was here for this…” 

Everyone else said some sort of agreement in unison.

Eventually the mood picked back up, and they all ate a leftover dinner that Ford made the day before. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steven was out of his suit and dressed in his pajamas, which was now his pride shirt from the year before, and flannel pants. Everyone had gone to sleep, but Steven was awake in his room, texting Connie about his day. He first started by telling her to mute his texts so she can sleep. When he was done, he just texted good night. He texted the group chat he has with the Gems and his Dad and kind of copy and pasted everything he just sent to Connie. Along with the good night, but he also muted the group chat, so he wouldn’t get continuous message notifications. 

He grabbed all the money from all the different bubbles, and put it all in one bubble. He'll go through it another day. 

Before going to bed he went out to get water. But he heard something...crying? Geez...he thought today was a good day. 

It was coming from the Attic. 

He went upstairs to find Dipper, with his face smothered in a pillow. 

“Dipper are you okay?” 

"no...not really..." Dipper mumbles into his pillow. 

"do...do you want to talk about it...?" Steven says as he gets closer to Dipper.  
There's a small sniffle and Dipper gets up, wiping off his face. Steven sits at the end of the bed.

"yeah..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh Dipper...
> 
> it's been days.
> 
> you guys doing good? hope so :T <3
> 
> instagram message me @mother_mortician_  
> if you need help or support.


	19. Support

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I got you, don't worry about it, your grunkle has basically adopted me as his grand child, so we're basically cousins at this point."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'know that whole, Dipper is trans thing? yeah? 
> 
> well have a whole chapter.

“I’m listening…” 

Dipper looks at Steven in the eyes and crosses his arms over his chest. He did want to SOMEONE about it, but Mabel was gone, and he couldn’t just text her about it. 

“well...I have a surgery coming up soon..soon after my birthday… and it’s life changing...it could help me...but my insurance sent me an email today..I didn’t see it earlier since I was out with my great uncle Ford… it um..it said that they weren’t going to pay for my surgery. Apparently I don’t technically need it, so now I can’t pay for it..and I’ve been waiting for years for this surgery...and without insurance paying for it...I don’t think I can get the surgery anymore…” 

Steven sat silently for a moment, waiting to see if there was more Dipper was going to say. He wondered if Dipper knew he knew. He thought he’d ask if Dipper would open up.

“What...kind of surgery?” He didn’t want to make Dipper uncomfortable. 

“Well uh… I was born with the wrong gender…I’ve been taking hormone supplements but.. this surgery was meant to correct my...my chest….” Dipper looked up at Steven concerned he would judge him. Dipper never saw Steven in a dress, and Mabel kind of forgot to mention it when she told Dipper about what happened. Also Dipper literally didn’t even read Steven’s shirt. He’s literally wearing a pride shirt. 

“Oh...okay…” Steven was thinking something, and hoped his dad would allow such an investment. 

The silence worried Dipper, his heart started beating hard in his chest.His mind started racing  
‘Is Steven going to think I’m wrong? Gross? A mistake? A-’

“How much is the surgery?” Steven says looking up to Dipper with honest eyes. Dipper was confused. 

“W-what do you mean?” Dipper asked, nervous as to why Steven was asking such a question. 

“How much is the surgery? How much does it cost?” Steven said a little firmer, but still with a softness to his voice. Dipper didn’t know if Steven was upset or just sounded serious. 

“I-it’s like...four thousand…?” Dipper said while trying to figure out what Steven was thinking. Unlike usual, his face was hard to read, ‘was he upset? Happy? Angery? Disgusted? Frustrated? Uugghh.’

“Mmm…. Do you mind if..I go and come back? It’ll only take like... fifteen minutes? Twenty max.” Steven said with an expression like just wanted Dipper to agree. 

“Uh...sure…” 

Steven got up and walked out of the room.

‘He just left...he must hate me...I thought we were friends...does he think i’m disgusting?’ thoughts like this for a long time. About twenty whole minutes. He was having an anxiety attack, his chest hurt. He was curled up in a ball by the time Steven returned. 

“Oh geez.. Hey hey what happened?” Steven said, letting go of what was in his hand and running over to Dipper and picking him up into his arms. He didn’t really think about it, he just did what he did when Dipper was panicking. However, this time was just a panic attack, he wasn’t dissociating.   
“Hey it’s okay” he said looking Dipper in his eyes. Dipper blinked a few times and looked at Steven. His breathing slowed down and he slightly pushed himself out of Steven’s arms. Steven was like ‘oh crap’ and let go of Dipper. 

“Dipper It’s okay, what happened…” Steven said with a gentle voice, laced with concern and understanding.

“I...I thought you...left because…” He said after calming down. 

“What? No no. I was just getting something” Steven said, reassuring Dipper. 

“What...?” Dipper said, raising an eyebrow to Steven. 

Steven got up and walked towards the door. There was a bubble floating barely past the doorway in the room. Dipper couldn’t really make out what was in it. Steven grabbed the bubble from the air, without really even touching it. 

“Here” and he hands it to Dipper with a smile. His hands are directly on the bubble. He holds it with both of his hands, wondering if it’s metaphorical and scared he’d break it. Steven makes a small motion and the bubble pops, dropping forty-five hundred dollar bills. Four Thousand five hundred dollars. 

“W-what? I-I don’t understand” Dipper said baffled at the money Steven just gave him. 

“It’s so you can have your surgery” Steven said with a smile. 

“I...I can’t let you pay for it...that’s like...way too much...I-i-i--” Dipper was befuddled. He tried handing back the money, but Steven put his hand on his hand, pushing it back towards him. 

“Dipper, it’s okay, really” Steven was wondering how many times he has to reassure Dipper. 

It went on for another twenty minutes. 

Finally Dipper accepted that Steven wasn’t going to back down on his offer, and that Steven was one hundred percent serious. Which was followed by Dipper crying tears of joy and hugging Steven. Steven also suggested healing him after the surgery so he doesn't have to worry about the pain, or scars. 

Dipper wiped away his tears, and cleared his throat.   
“Enough about me...I was wondering if I could ask you some questions.” 

Steven let out a laugh, glad that Dipper was feeling better.   
“Yeah, okay. What do you wanna know?” 

“Weeeeelll, besides from the strength, and the speed, and the bubble, and the healing, and the glowing, and the fusing...what can you do? Unless that’s it.” Dipper asks, already clicking a pen in his hand and reaching for his journal. The one with a pine tree on the front. 

“uh...I can summon a shield?” He said while summoning a pink round shield with a large star in the center and a bunch of small diamonds making a circle on the edge.   
“I can also make thicker and edgier points… or even any shape...maybe.. I haven’t really tested it. “ he hands Dipper the shield. He draws a small picture of the shield on the page next to the one about Steven. He glanced at the page with the drawing of him on it and realized Dippers got some skills. 

“Amazing” Dipper said, feeling more relaxed. “And you made that out of nothing?” 

“Well...it’s magic? From my gem. He raised his shirt for a second, and Dipper asked if he could draw the gem too. Steven said sure. 

As Dipper finished up the drawing Steven spoke up  
“I can show you one more thing, but I’m getting really tired…” he checks his phone, it was about midnight. Geez. 

“Okay okay, sorry.” he looked up at Steven, eager for what Steven was about to show him. 

“I can also shapeshift” he stood up and stretched his arms and legs. Prompting a sound of awe from Dipper. He then sat back down and made his finger into a small puppy. Despite trying to play off he was fine with the cats after it all happened, he preferred to do it with puppies since then. 

“Oh wow” 

“I can technically shapeshift more..but...I’m not very comfortable with it…” 

“That’s fine. Let me know if you ever do want to tell me, further down the lane.” he said with an understanding smile. 

Immediately followed by a look of horror as Steven put the puppy finger in his mouth. 

Then his finger was back to normal. 

After the drawing was completed, Steven said good night to Dipper and started heading towards the door. But was stopped. 

“Hey..would you want to spend the night in here tonight? since..Mabel’s gone and such…” 

Steven glanced outside.   
“Uh yeah sure” and he came back in the room and laid down on Mabel’s bed.  
Steven said good night again and Dipper said the same. Soon Steven was unconscious. 

DIpper was up, making some finishing touches on his drawings when Steven started glowing. Immediately followed with his phone screen turning on. For some reason, his screen started showing a video of what looked to be his grunkles. He pulled his phone up so he could hear. 

Sounded like they were making plans. 

~ ~ ~ ~ 

“Should we do it before or after?” He heard his Great Uncle Ford say. 

“Mmmm definitely after, we’ll surprise him when he gets home afterwards” Stan said excitedly. 

“The lady on the phone wants to know what we want written on the cake?” Ford said while looking over at Stan. 

“Uuuuuhhhhhh” 

“Stanley!” 

“Oh oh oh, okay, how about ‘WE’RE PROUD OF YOU MASON!’ or DIPPER’” he said with one palm out making a large arch in the air. There was a pause when he said ‘or’ but continued the arch after saying ‘Dipper’. 

“Perfect!” Ford said

“Oh wait! How about ‘You’ve always been a man’? Or is that...too ...specific” 

“She already hung up” 

“Oh”   
~ ~ ~ ~ 

They were planning a party for after his surgery. Dipper was crying happy tears staring at his phone. He looked over at Steven, whose color was fading and the video on his screen turned off. 

Dipper wondered if it was just something Steven projected on to the screen or not...he wondered how he got a conversation that was just solely his Grunkles. 

It was just a memory of Ford’s that Steven saw that came up from the conversation with Dipper. 

Steven thought whatever it was… he really liked it. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Besides the small dream, Steven seemed to have a pretty uneventful slumber. 

At least, that was until he woke up in the middle of the night with a weight on his chest.

Something was pinning him down to the bed. He couldn’t see what it was since the room was pretty much complete darkness, and the moon wasn’t out. He tried staring at whatever was one him. It felt heavy. 

But it smelt...familiar. 

And then it licked him in the face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Pride Month, Everybody. 
> 
> You're all perfect the way you are! <3
> 
> (unless you're racist or anti-lgbt or hateful..then you gotta work on that, you can make a change <3) 
> 
> I, myself, am part of the lgbt community. so that's something. :I
> 
> my instagram inbox is always open @mother_mortician_


	20. oh.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> young man wakes up to witness violence. 
> 
> Taking care of a problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw. violence? in the begining

“Hey Lion get off me--” 

It wasn’t as fluffy as he thought it would be. 

That’s not Lion. 

Steven looked around the room, he wasn’t in the room with Dipper anymore. The window wasn’t the same. Once his eyes adjusted to the darkness he noticed something...There were girls around him. He panicked and sat up. Whatever was on his chest got off with a few knocks on the floor and…

A snort? 

“Waddles?” and there was another snort in response. 

Oh no. 

He looked around the room and found a phone next to him. Unlocking it. 

It was Mabel’s phone. It was five in the morning. He was panicking. He didn’t want to do this again. He didn’t mean to. He went through the contacts quickly. He started spamming text messages. 

“FORD” 

“FORD” 

“STANFORD” 

“WAKE UP” 

“EMERGENCY” 

He remembered that Ford had set his phone to go off loudly if it’s texted ‘emergency’. There was a fast response, but as a phone call. 

“Mabel? What’s wrong?” He sounded panicked. He heard Mabel’s voice on the other side.

“I need you to go wake up Steven” he said panicked.

“What?” He sounded confused. 

“I need you to wake him up right now. He’s upstairs in my bed.” 

“Why? What happened?” he asked but Steven could hear rustling on the other end like Ford had gotten up. 

“Steven will explain, please, just wake him up, just punch him in the face” 

There was a pause in the rustling. 

“You want me to punch him in the face?” he sounded bewildered. 

“Yeeaaah, he totally deserves it” Steven said to Ford, he honestly believed that he deserved to be punched in the face. 

“What did he do?” Ford sounded angry. 

“Nevermind, just wake up him, slam him in the face with a book” Steven thought he should avoid Ford hurting himself by hitting him. Steven hears some rustling. 

“Are you sure about this?” Ford asked after a minute. Steven laid back down, back flat on the floor, he didn’t want to risk hurting Mabel. 

“Yes, please, I can promise you Steven will not be mad at you about it” Steven said, bracing himself to wake up.  
“Just hit him until he wakes up.” The last comment kind of connected to Ford on what possibly could be the reason Mabel would call in the middle of the night to hit Steven. 

‘Because it wasn’t Mabel asking.’ Ford thought. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A loud SMACK sound woke up Dipper. 

The light in the room had been turned on, he looked over and saw Ford standing over Steven, holding a hardcover book. Dipper was confused. Only for a second. Then he saw his grunkle swing and hit Steven in the face again. Dipper swung his legs to the side of the bed, stood up and ran over to Ford, pulling at his shirt. 

“GRUNKLE FORD, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?” 

Ford turned around and looked at his angry great nephew, then back at the book in his hand, then at Steven who was still sleeping. 

“I can explain.” Ford said looking around the room trying to figure out what to say. From the fact that Steven did not wake up from the first hit, he believed his suspicions were correct. Steven possessed Mabel. Since possessing Lars accidentally, he has become stronger. A simple slap to the face was not going to do a single thing to him. He wouldn’t not wake up from a slap. It has to really wake him up, to get him back in his body. However all of this...he couldn’t tell Dipper. He knew Dipper didn’t like thinking about possession… He didn’t want to tell Dipper because he feared he wouldn’t want to be friends with Steven anymore, and he could tell being friends with Steven made him happy. He also knew Steven couldn’t really control this power as much as the others, he didn’t like practicing it, because he didn’t WANT to be good at possession. 

He glanced back over as the sleeping Steven, and then at the expectant look on Dipper’s face. He can’t explain. 

He quickly turns around and hits Steven as hard as he could with the book.  
“NOO” Dipper yells, grabbing the book from Ford, but from the last hit, Steven was waking up. 

Dipper pushed past Ford.  
“Steven are you okay?” 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Steven looked up at Dipper and looked past him at Ford then back to Dipper, who looked very worried. 

“y-yeah...I’m fine...Ford was just helping me...don’t worry about it” he said while reaching up to his cheek. It hurt, but he healed immediately after. No bruises for this boy. 

“wha-w-How- huh??” Dipper’s words were stumbling over each over. 

“It’s hard to explain...sorry…” Steven said hesitantly. 

Ford was standing awkwardly behind Dipper. His face in a slight grimace.

“It’s okay Dipper, go to sleep, we can talk about it later…” Steven said while slowly getting up out of bed. The look in Steven’s eyes was convincing, Dipper walked back over and laid in his bed. 

Steven stood up next to Ford, and looked at him with pain in his eyes. 

They walk down stairs and sat at the table. Steven won’t be going back to sleep. He’s got work in a few hours anyways. 

“Steve-” 

“I’m so sorry…” He interrupted and put his hands on his face with his elbows on the table.  
“ I don’t know why that happened…” he said into his hands. 

“It’s okay - uh - well… let’s see how Mabel feels first...but as of now..I’m not mad..I don’t blame you…I’m sure Mabel will understand...” 

Steven groaned into his hands.  
“okay…”

After twenty minutes of sitting there and talking to Ford, Steven’s phone goes off.

*BUzzzBuuzzz* 

Steven looked up at Ford, then the phone buzzed again. Ford just gave a small head gesture of ‘you should get that’. 

Steven pulls out his phone and it’s Connie.  
~ ~ ~  
“OH wow! So cool!” 

“Send me a picture next time you’re Mr. Mystery ;) <3” 

Steven blushes then quickly looks up at Ford, hoping he didn’t notice his face turn red.  
‘Bad timing Connie’  
he thinks as he looks back at his phone. Ford had gotten up to make coffee, since he knows he probably won’t go back to sleep. Thank the stars. 

*Buzzbuzz* 

“Lion came back BTW, I’m sending him your way” he looked up again at Ford, then out the window. The sun was rising. No Pink portals. Hmmm. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
In the meantime, Ford and Steven were talking about stuff, mostly about his powers. Ford wanted to add a few things, hoping it’ll lighten the mood, for him to think of the other things instead. When 6:30 in the morning came around Steven took his medications and sat drinking water with Ford, who was drinking coffee. 

Finally after twenty minutes Lion came in view from the window. 

“No portal?” 

“What was that Steven?” Ford looked up from adding some entries in his journal about Steven. 

“Oh, Lion’s here..just...I didn’t see his portal…” It’s not like Steven was worried, it was just off.  
“Maybe he just came from a portal I didn’t see..” 

They both walk outside to meet Lion. Ford tried petting Lion this time, which he didn’t do last time. 

“Soft” was all Ford could say about it. 

He came out with his journal so he added a small note on the page he had already started on Lion. 

All three of them walked back into the house and all went down to the basement, to where Bill’s statue was. 

“Okay Steven over the last few nights, I’ve been working on this” He says while holding up a box. “I had been collecting some items that would work as a spell to keep all his weirdness in, and preventing anything from breaking it in. We had a protection spell like this a few years back over this house, but Soos accidentally removed it when he was cleaning.” 

Steven winces when looking at the box and Bill and then at Lion.

“Isn't that a little big?” 

“Oh don’t worry, It’s collapsible” He said while collapsing it, with a smile on his face. Pretty proud of what he made. 

“And you have to do the spell after we put him in there? Y’know you can’t breath in there, right?” 

“Oh I know that. That’s why I put these together!” He pulls out some face masks that look like a large curved glass that covers the whole face with some small tanks on them.  
“It’s so we could breath. Scuba gear probably would have been easier to get together, but this is easier in general. So talking is an option.” Despite everything that happened that morning, Ford was pretty excited about entering a pocket dimension. 

“okay...so...I’ll get Bill and you get the box?” 

Ford nodded. They both put the breathing masks on and Ford picked up the box and touched Lion. Nothing happened. Before he could ask Steven picks him up as easy as picking up a loaf of bread, and starts putting him into Lion’s mane. 

Ford was alone in the mane for only a few seconds, maybe a minute. He looked back at the floor he had come in through, and there was nothing to indicate an exit. He looked at the tree in front of him and slowly started walking towards it. He was still holding his journal and the folded box. The things for the spell in his sweatpants pocket. He started wondering why he didn’t change out of his pajamas. 

Soon Steven joined him. The bubble that was around Bill was a little tighter, a little less bubbly and a little more boxy. However, as soon as Steven came in he made it back into a bubble. Steven kind of stopped for a moment.

“It’s weird being in here without having to hold my breath” Steven said while looking at the environment.  
“Okay, head onto the little island, over there” He pointed over to the island. 

“So what island is that over there?” Ford asked

“Oh that’s Lars’s. I can enter Lion and exit out of Lars, and we’ll be in space. Since uh...that’s where Lars is.” 

“And that is because...You brought Lars back to life?” Ford asked more cautiously than his last question. 

“yeah...I mean I didn’t bring him back to just be a portal… at the time I didn’t even know I COULD bring him back...I was just...crying…” He said while looking over at Lars’s tree. He was sounding a little sad. 

When they reached the island, Ford opened up the box and started setting up everything for the spell. Steven then placed the bubbled Bill into the box, Ford performed the spell, and nothing super cool happened. Sure he’s used to magic, in the sense of gems, but he was hoping it would look a little cooler. The box with a bubbled Bill was now sealed. 

“Should I put another bubble around the box?” Steven said with a brow raised and one hand on his hip and the other with the palm pointing up. 

Ford cupped his chin. He knew the spell would work, but  
“It wouldn’t hurt” 

Steven checked his phone for the time, he had time.  
“We could stay here for a bit if you want to put any of this in your journal?” 

He took the offer.

There was silence for about fifteen minutes until they decided it was time to go. Steven grabbed Ford’s hand and pulled through the ground and out. 

Both of them fell onto the living room floor in front of Mabel. 

“How the heck were you guys in there?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now he has to talk to Mabel.
> 
> (I hope everyone is doing okay.) 
> 
> Inbox on instagram is always open for emotional support or whatever @mother_mortician_


	21. Reconciliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven talks to Mabel

Steven stayed silent. 

He felt ashamed at what happened. Seeing her made him nervous. 

He really liked being her friend but Lars was very upset when he found out... 

“Lion has a pocket dimension in him.”   
Ford spoke up after noticing Steven’s lack of response. 

Mabel looked at them suspiciously. 

“That’s cool” Despite her usual chipper attitude, she didn’t sound super excited to hear Lion had a pocket dimension. Her expression was hard for either Steven or Ford to read, but Steven was preparing for the worst. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
~Earlier that morning~

When she woke up that morning her friends had asked her what Steven did to her. She was confused by that question 

“He didn’t do anything wrong, why do you ask that?” 

“Well you were on the phone last night asking someone to hit Steven, and you sounded really upset”

Mabel had decided to go home for breakfast since her Grunkle Stan said he was going to make some ‘stan-cakes’. Steven and Grunkle Ford were gone, but Dipper was in the kitchen with Grunkle Stan. 

“Oh hey Mabel, how was your sleep over?” Dipper asked as Mabel came into the room. 

“It was ...good..” she started with happiness in her voice but it slowly faded.

“Hey are you okay?” 

“Yeah just… mmm…” she didn’t really know how to phrase what she was thinking of saying.   
“Did Steven do anything...bad? That you know of. I mean.. I know he broke some of those jerks’ bones, but they deserved it. I mean like...has he done anything... concerning?” 

Dipper’s face scrunched up a bit while he was thinking.   
“Uh...concerning? I mean when he found out our insurance couldn’t pay for my top surgery, he gave me enough money to pay for all of it.” 

Stan and Mabel spoke at the same time.  
“What?”   
“HE WHAT?” Stan turned around from flipping the ‘stan-cakes’. Not an angry kind of yell, just shock.

Dipper looked up from Mabel at his grunkle then back at Mabel.   
“Well uh...yeah… he gave me four thousand five hundred pay for the surgery…but that’s only a bit concerning...” 

“HE HAS THAT KIND OF MONEY? TO JUST….GIVE AWAY?” he said loudly, but not angrily. He just seemed exasperated. 

“I..guess?” Dipper now felt like he shouldn’t have said that. 

“Okay, but is that it? That has happened?” Mabel asked, hoping for a different answer. She didn’t want to make assumptions. Considering she doesn’t know Steven has those kinds of powers, she just felt like she was paranoid, and maybe was having a nightmare? 

“Oh! Um… the only thing like... ‘concerning’ concerning is uh...Great Uncle Ford was hitting the crap out of him in the middle of the night...and then Steven said everything was fine?” he said with a scrunched confused expression.

“Why the heck would he do that?” 

“That doesn’t sound like Ford at all” Stan said with his brows furrowed. 

“I...I’m not sure, actually” Dipper said while bringing his hand up to his chin. 

Soon after this conversation, Lion comes up into the living room, and Mabel sits with him while waiting for breakfast. Surprisingly, Lion just licks Waddles’s nose, and they cuddled up close together.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

After seeing Ford and Steven fall out of Lion she was even more confused. 

‘If Grunkle Ford was hitting Steven in the middle of the night, why were they hanging out together?’ and why does Steven look so scared of me?’ she wondered. 

Steven stood up quickly and helped up Ford. While Mabel stood there and watched with confusion. Why was she so suspicious of Steven?

She noticed a small cautious side eye from Steven, until he looked at her with a forced smile. His hand went to the back of his neck and then he asked 

“Hey Mabel.. can we talk somewhere...privately…?” 

“Uh...yeah Steven, sure” 

They quietly walked over to the attic and sat on opposite beds. Steven rested his elbows on his knees and Mabel sat with her back against the wall. 

“Mabel I’m so sorry…” 

“Why are you apologizing…” She said with one hand out, palm up.

“My powers...sometimes react to how I’m feeling or what I’m thinking and...I wondered if you were okay, since we haven’t talked much since we went out for the day...and my powers reacted in...putting my mind in your body....” 

“You...possessed me…?” she said with disbelief. 

“I...I didn’t mean to…” He said and placed his face in his hands. 

Mabel straightened up. 

“What the hell do you mean you didn’t mean to?” She yelled. She was upset. Bill had possessed Dipper. ‘Is Steven like Bill?’ she didn’t want to think that thought. 

Steven lifted his head up and flinched up when she had yelled.   
“I-I’m sorry… the rest of my powers I have better control of...I practiced and I worked hard to get better...but...I didn’t want to get better at possessing people….I didn’t want to practice…..so...I can’t really control it or when it happens… but I ...could only do it while sleeping..so I tried getting myself woken up….” 

Mabel didn’t know how she felt.

“Is that why Grunkle Ford was hitting you…?” 

“yeah..I used your phone to get him to wake me up…. I asked him to hit me as hard as he could…I’m sure he did it a few times given Dipper’s reaction...” 

“Oh....” 

“I didn’t want to do that to you… Mabel I...I really care about you… I tried doing what I could to get out as soon as I realized where I was… I would never want to hurt you...If I did end up hurting you...I don’t know what I’d do….” 

“What do you mean….” despite the feelings she was feeling, what Steven said filled her with concern. 

“I…” he couldn’t finish it. He choked on a sob, but he just started crying. Burying his face in his hands.

Mabel got up from the other bed and sat next to Steven and just gently, pulled him in for a hug. 

“I’m so sorry….” Steven breathed out. 

“Steven, I….I understand…” she did understand, but she still had many questions...but those can wait.

They sat there and held each other for a few minutes, until Mabel broke the silence. 

“Thank you...for saving me the other day…” 

“If I am able to, I will always help...especially my friends...” 

A small smile grew on Mabel’s face. 

“well..I’m glad we’re friends”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sad old man who was kicked out of house by parents for losing them a chance to make money is confused with young man with crap tons of money.
> 
> this is a short chapter :T sorry  
> well it was still a bunch of pages, but feels short to me.   
> I hope everyone is staying safe <3 
> 
> instagram inbox always open @mother_mortician_  
> Please take care of yourself <3
> 
> Fight for jusitce, if possible.


	22. Pines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Breakfast time, eating some Stan-cakes

Talking with Mabel really helped him relax. 

They sat in the room and talked for about half an hour until they went down, and joined the family for breakfast. Stan seemed pretty sad and confused, but he was good at hiding it, reacting to parts of the conversation like he’s paying attention. 

Ford was telling Dipper all about the pocket dimension in Lion’s mane. However, he just said he went in with Steven for research purposes, and nothing about Bill. 

“Oh, can I go in sometime?” Dipper asked excitedly. 

Ford and Steven exchanged looks.

“Sure, just another day” Steven says with a smile, they’ll have to put Bill somewhere Dipper would not be able to see. Sure they couldn’t see that Bill was even in the box in the bubble, but Still, just so Dipper doesn’t ask questions. 

The conversations stayed pretty lively. Ford was talking about the pocket dimension and briefly told Steven about his travels in other dimensions. Steven thought the M dimension sounded funny, and Ford groaned. 

“It was okay at first, but after sometime it just...uggghh” He said groaned that last part with his hands pulling down on his face. 

The conversation shifted after sometime 

“OH Grunkle Ford, did you know that Steven is paying for Dipper’s surgery?” 

“He is?” a look of disbelief on his face “what happened to your insurance?” 

“Insurance was uh..not going to pay for it...when I told Steven, he gave me enough money for me to get it” 

“Wow, that’s amazing, thank you so much Steven” Ford said with a smile. 

“Yeah..thanks Steven…” Stan said sadly and quietly. Staring at his food, which he hardly touched.

Not quite enough. Ford noticed the mood. 

“Are you alright Stanley?”

He looked up and looked at his brother then to all the kids. 

“Uh yeah, sure” Not convincing at all. 

“Grunkle Stan, you know we don’t believe you” Dipper said with a look of concern. 

“C’mon Grunkle Stan, we love you, what’s wrong?” Mabel added.

“Just uh…” he looked over at the door. 

‘Abort mission! Abort mission. Mayday mayday, you’re losing your facade’. 

He glanced at Ford, and although they both had talked it out, it was still a touchy subject.  
He looked at Steven  
“Just..it doesn’t make sense… you told us you grew up living in a van for most of your life and you never went to school...but then you went around and got all that baby stuff for my grandkid and then you give Dipper thousands of dollars for his surgery…”

“Oh...well you see..my dad was a musician and now he’s a band manager...but um… his old manager sold one of his songs to a burger place as a jingle and he got ten million from that...so he said I can use as much as I want while on my road trip..If I want to stay at a hotel or eat at diners and such...and I don’t normally make big purchases, and I don’t stay in hotels or motels often and I just sleep in my car...so I thought...I could use it to help out.” Steven explained.

The mood in the room was hard to read, a part was shocked at the amount of money but the other was sad. 

“oh...I see...well..you got a good dad there kid...it’s just that when I was younger, before I even graduated highschool, I was kicked out of the house for uh..” he sadly looked at Ford for a second, and Ford put a hand on his shoulder. “Messing things up for Sixer here. They said I could come back if I made them a fortune… and...I could never get it...I tried really hard but...it’d never work out… I didn’t have a home for..a long while…” 

“Oh…” Steven said quietly…

Stan cleared his throat.  
“But it’s fine now kid” he said with a smile..that looked pretty forced. He just didn’t want to ruin the whole mood of breakfast.  
“Now I have all the family I need I got Ford, Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and now little baby Franny, and I’m happy, despite all the crap before, my life has been good lately” His smile looked more genuine, but small tears formed at the corners of his eyes. 

“aww...we love you so much, Grunkle Stan” Mabel said at the end. Trying to cheer up Stan, but he was already happy. 

“Yeah we really do” added Dipper. 

“Yeah..” Ford added with a smile at Stan. 

“And if one day, Pointdexter here decides to adopt you as his grandchild or whatever, we can welcome you to the Pines family too” Stan added with a laugh. Prompting Ford to respond with a lopsided smile and scrunched brows. 

"Oh gosh would that mean I'd have seven names??"

The rest of breakfast went by fast, the mood had lightened and jokes were being told left and right. 

Oh geez. Steven has to get ready for work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Welcome to the Mystery Shack! And I’m

Mr. Mystery” 

He started getting the hang of this. 

Being Mr. Mystery was really fun for him. It was like he was pretending to be someone entirely different, or like an actor for one of Jamie’s plays. Jamie would probably write a character like Mr. Mystery now that Steven thought about it. 

He had two more tour groups before his shift was over so he decided to give them his all. They laughed at his jokes, and awed at his stories. It was fun, he got more tips again. Which was still surprising to Steven. The people at beach city were so used to his casual use of gem powers, but now the people who toured were super amazed, it was like he was a super cool magician or something. Well, he felt like it a bit, given he wears a suit. 

Towards the end of his last tour, he told a joke and he heard a familiar laugh come from the crowd. He stopped and looked into the crowd. Nothing out of the ordinary. Hmm. 

After the tour Steven leaned against the counter of the register. 

“Hey Mabel, how’s your shift going?” Steven said as he looked over the counter at her. 

“Oh you know… boring? Funny occasionally” 

“Man I miss working the register” Steven said as he sat behind the counter and rested his head down. 

“Oh C’mon, being Mr. Mystery must be fun, right?” 

Steven let out a small laugh  
“Okay, yeah it’s a bit fun” he says as he closes his eyes for a second. 

Most of the tourist group had already purchased things and left, but there were three people left in the store.

“Oh hey there little one, need anything?” Mabel says to someone. 

“Oh I just wanted to say I reeeeeaaally liked the tour” 

Steven knew that voice, his head quickly shot up and saw a small child.

Who was purple. 

“Amethyst??” 

Mabel looked confused at Steven and the child. She remembered one of his mom’s was Amethyst, but this? This was a child. 

“Sooooo….Is your shift over?” 

Steven walks around to the front of the counter and checks his phone  
“Oh, I guess so. It ended a few minutes ago” 

“HEY, HIS SHIFT IS OVER!” and she shifted back in her normal form, and jumped on him. There were two other beams of light and Pearl and Garnet both jumped on him. 

There’s pretty much a dog pile on Steven. 

“When you told us you were this ‘Mystery Man’, we wanted to come see you!” Pearl said excitedly. 

“But we all shapeshifted because we wanted to surprise you!” Amethyst said as they all started to get up.  
Garnet added  
“And I saw that your performance would lack if you noticed it was us”. 

They had a big group hug, this time while not squashing Steven to the floor.

“Um...hi?” Mabel said meekishly. The hug ended. 

“OH guys, this is Mabel!” he said with two hands out presenting Mabel. “and Mabel, this is Amethyst, Garnet, and Pearl, they’re like my moms” 

Mabel looked at all of them with amazement. 

“Oh my gooooosh”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D  
> (y'know how I said that Steven didn't see Lion's portal when he came to gravity falls? this was the reason, they're all sneaky)
> 
> Who can I pay to draw Steven as Mr. Mystery?


	23. Nerding out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nerds excited about real living Aliens and space.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (fyi, I love nerds, I'm not insulting them, I myself am a nerd.)

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mabel”  
Pearl said while shaking her hand. 

“Whatup!” Amethyst says high fiving Mabel. 

Garnet just gives Mabel a nod. 

“You guys are so beautiful!” Mabel said as she looked at the gems. 

“Ahaha awwww thanks” Amethyst said, jokingly bashful. 

“So Steven, this is your new home?” Garnet asked. 

“Well, yeah, for a while” Steven said with a smile. He pulled off his eye patch and blinked WAY TOO MANY times. 

“And they’re treating you well?” Garnet asked with a hand on his shoulder. 

“Oh yeah! We love Steven here! He’s the bomb diggity” Mabel said excitedly. Steven let out a small laugh at the use of ‘bomb diggity’ to describe him. 

“Well that’s good to hear” Pearl said, palming her hands together. 

“Would you guys want to meet everyone else?” Mabel said, locking up the shop and already getting ready to walk to the normal part of the house. 

They look at Steven. They wanted to hang him, but they did also come here unannounced and uninvited. They were fine only seeing him for a few minutes, and then going back home. 

“Yeah, you want to?” Steven said with a smile. A smile grew on all of their faces. 

“We’d be delighted,” Garnet said calmly, losing her smile while talking, but the smile was quickly slapped back on her face once Mabel had turned around. 

Mabel ran away to the kitchen or the living room. Steven wasn’t super sure. He guessed she went to make sure everyone was dressed, especially Stan. 

While she was gone, the gems explained to Steven how they even got there in the first place. When Connie texted she was sending Lion his way, she actually sent him to the gems, who all got a ride to gravity falls on his back. It was early morning when Lion teleported them to the middle of the forest. They spent most of the day walking around the city, trying to get an idea what most of the people there looked like. Pearl bought a hat. 

“Okay, guys you can come in now” Mabel yelled from the other room. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

When they walk into the room, there are two journals on the table, and Ford and Dipper are standing up with large smiles on their faces. Oh geez. 

Ford cleared his throat and tried getting back his composure, he took a few steps forward and extended a hand to Pearl. Which Pearl took, and they shook hands.

“Greetings, I’m Stanford Pines, or Ford, and this is Dipper” he said, gesturing to the overly excited teenager. Dipper was very excited to be meeting aliens. Sure, Steven was half alien, but these were ALIENS. 

“Salutations, I’m Pearl, and this is Garnet and Amethyst” She said while gesturing to the other gems. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all, Steven has been a very nice addition to this household” 

“That’s very nice to hear,” Pearl says with a smile.

“I mean, if you said he was awful, we’d just have to beat him up,” Amethyst said jokingly, while pushing Steven a bit with her elbow. He just laughs. 

Garnet fazed off her visor and spoke  
“Thank you all so much for accepting Steven into your home, and showing him kindness. He seems very happy here.” 

Ford, Mabel and Dipper all looked at Garnet in awe. 

The visor went back on, and she looked straight at Dipper, who seemed to be vibrating from excitement.  
“You have questions. Would you like to ask them?” 

“AH Oh Gosh! YES” Dipper was surprised she noticed he wanted to ask questions. However, even without her future vision, it was very obvious. 

Ford looked over at Dipper, who was now stumbling over sounds that should be words.  
“We could all sit at the table?” Ford suggested to Dipper. 

“Yeah!” Dipper responded a little too loud. 

Everyone sat down except Steven, since there aren't enough chairs. He just leaned against the wall. He was starting to wonder where Stan went off to. He wondered if he should talk to him later, see how he's feeling. Thinking about what Stan said made Steven sad, maybe a hug will help.

“Um um.. okay ..so...I have a lot of questions” Dipper started off with his journal open, clicking his pen profusely. Ford also had his journal out, but wasn’t showing his excitement like Dipper was. 

“And we have answers,” Pearl said excitedly. She really enjoyed educating people on Gem-kind, and also enjoyed educating gems on human kind. Fun stuff. 

Dipper looked at his clean piece of paper, then at each of the gems, trying to figure out who to ask questions to first.

“OKAY! okay okay okayokayokay, okaaay” Dipper repeated. Ford cleared his throat.  
“Right, okay, so uh...can you all summon things? Like Steven has a shield...unless that’s just a Steven thing” 

“Oh we all totally can, here see?” Amethyst says and pulls out her whip, and passes it over to Dipper.  
“C’mon P” she encouraged.

“Oh alright,” She summoned her spear and handed it over to Ford. 

Garnet also summons her gloves but then says  
“I can’t really hand these over.” 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Silence settled over the room as the nerds started drawing in their journals, Ford was pretty fast at getting the drawing done, while Dipper took a tad bit longer. While there was silence, Stan walked into the room. He looked like he had just freshly showered. He put on a clean pair of pants, and a long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Just socks, no shoes, he knew there was going to be company, but he’s home, he doesn’t need shoes. 

Stan leaned over and whispered to Steven, who was loosening up his tie and pulling it over his head.  
“Psst Hey uh, what’s going on? Who are all the ladies?” 

Steven leaned back and whispered  
“They’re like my moms, they decided to surprise me with a visit, and Ford and Dipper are asking them questions about Gem things and such.” 

“Oh..cool.” 

“You doing okay, Stan?” Steven asked quietly. His eyes full of concern.

“Yeah, I’m doing alright” he said tiredly, it was hard for Steven to pinpoint if he was being honest or not.

Stan left the room again to get some stools for him and Steven to sit on and brought them to the table. Once they sat on the stools, Steven introduced Stan, who was greeted by all the gems. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The conversation on gems picked up again. Ford asked a lot of questions on the history of Gem-kind. Pearl gladly provided answers. He then asked about the history of the Crystal Gems, which lead to Pearl going on about serving Pink Diamond, and starting a rebellion. Garnet started adding to the story once her involvement in the war started. In helping fight for gems and other fusions, along with Earth. They spoke of corrupted gems, and how they healed them, but are still looking for any stragglers that still need healing. 

Dipper started asking questions on what their capabilities were. They talked of all being very skilled fighters. They don’t need to eat, or breathe air. Garnet spoke of Ruby’s fire capabilities and Saphire’s ice and future vision. air. Pearl made a tiny pearl hologram and placed it on the table, and started describing that Pearls on homeworld were originally made to be servants, so they were able to carry a lot inside of their gems. Y’know, like baggage. Then Amethyst started talking about shapeshifting. 

“Shapeshifting?” Mabel asked, chiming in. 

“Well, as gems, our bodies are projections with mass that our gems produce, since our bodies are nothing more than projections it is very easy for us to alter our physical form.” 

“Yeah, we can all do it, I do it all the time! There’s always peridot. She can’t.” Amethyst added. 

“So you all can shapeshift?” Dipper said hesitantly. Although he did know Steven could, it made him feel a bit better that Steven didn’t really do it much. 

“Yeah check it out” Amethyst says while shapeshifting into Dipper. 

The words practically flew out of his mouth  
“Okay you can go back now, thanks.” 

She shifted back, with an odd expression. 

Mabel started to ask about Ruby and Sapphire's relationship, how they met, how they fell in love, how their wedding was. `Which led to a whole thing about the Diamonds crashing the wedding, and then fighting them, reconnecting, and finally fixing up the Diamond family. 

Mabel wanted to circle back to the whole fusion thing.  
“So you two are a fusion, because you love each other, right?” Mabel asked

“Yes, very much”

“But you CAN fuse when not in love, correct?” Dipper asked, hoping that that was correct, to avoid an awkward conversation with his Great Uncle later. 

“That is true, you can fuse for many reasons like fighting or connecting, amongst friends, family, or lovers. It should always be with someone you trust. Like human relationships, if the gems are no good for each other, the fusion would be unstable and problematic.” 

“Fusion is like, that you and Steven did right?” Dipper asks Ford, who was working on his entry.

“What do you mean Ford and Steven...?” Pearl asked confused. 

“Oh well..like last week or so, Ford and I fused, we called... him...Dr. S...” Steven started it feeling pretty awkward, but then quieted when he saw all of the gems just staring at him. With an expression that was hard for him to place. Pearl's eyes widened 

“YOU WHAT?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOF. ouch. chill out. 
> 
> Hope everyone is having a good day!  
> My instagram inbox is always open if you need to talk to someone @mother_mortician_
> 
> okay guys, so it seems like lately I've been posting around 12-2 in the morning, California time, sorry for the late posting. 
> 
> (My kiddo hasn't been sleeping till 3am, it's really goofed up the posting time, despite never really having one.)
> 
> I hope you're all doing fantastic!
> 
> (I'm going to fall asleep now)


	24. "TaLeNt ShOw"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fusions?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God...I hope this isn't ass. For some reason, while writing, my brain was like 
> 
> "who are these characters?" 
> 
> 'the gems'
> 
> "hmmm, you sure?"
> 
> ...I was just Stumped. Oops. sorry.

Pearl looked at Steven then Ford then back and forth several times. 

“You hardly know him! An-an-and You’re a child! He’s a grown man, Steven. That’s extremely inappropriate.” 

Steven’s hands went up in the air   
“Wh- Seriously Pearl? Really? I open up to someone and you’re upset?” Steven said with exasperation. 

“Steven, be sensible, yo-” 

“Hold on, Pearl.” Garnet interrupted. “Why did you fuse?” she asked Ford.

“Well… for research... and to gain understanding... to understand fusion, and to understand Steven…” Ford said nervously. Garnet was very intimidating. 

“And Steven, you were okay with this? He did not pressure you to fuse?” she said while looking straight at him. 

“ I was okay with it, and he did not, he’s a very respectful person.” 

“Then Pearl, it’s decided. Fusion regards those who are involved, we can’t tell Steven who he should and should not fuse with. He’s not a child anymore, Pearl, we can’t baby him” 

Pearl looked down at the table. 

“Hey it’s okay Pearl, you’ll always be my bird mom” Steven said with a smile, reaching over and putting a hand on her shoulder. It could have been a sweet moment, if Amethyst didn’t start cracking up at the ‘bird mom’ comment. Amethyst’s laugh was contagious. 

As the conversation livened up, it seemed like they were old friends. They asked tons of questions about Steven and Ford’s fusion. Steven handed his phone over to the gems 

“Oh wow what a hunk!” Amethyst said jokingly. 

They then asked Ford about how he felt about fusing. He told them it was one of the most bizarre and amazing things he had ever experienced. Though, he did not get into talking of the panic and pain that soon followed, he knew this was Steven’s family, but he was sure he wouldn’t want that to be a whole table discussion. 

Steven noticed Ford’s efforts in not saying anything bad about his experience fusing with him. He knew it ended on a bad note, but it was fun at first. Maybe another time. 

He enjoyed having the gems over, but he hoped they wouldn’t surprise him unannounced in the future. Maybe making the most of their visit today wouldn’t be so bad, plus it was fun being together. 

Plus it would be pretty fun to show the Pines family.

“Hey guys, do you think we could educate them on different kinds of fusions and gems?” Steven asked while looking at his family. All of their faces were suddenly beaming with excitement. Not just the gems, every person in the room. Even Stan. 

The gems hadn’t fused with Steven in a long time. He hadn’t been doing much fusing lately. With the exception of Connie. That was part of the reason it was shocking that Steven fused with Ford. He hadn’t really been trying to open up to anyone new. 

The Pines family sat at the table in anticipation, but then Steven stated 

“It’d be better if we go outside” 

As everyone went outside, the Stans grabbed some fold out chairs for everyone to sit on. 

It started with Steven and Amethyst   
“You guys ready?” 

Steven and Amethyst clasped hands, causing a big poof of smoke and a bright white light that engulfed them. 

“Hey everyone, I’m Smoky Quartz” They said excitedly. 

Everyone clapped like it was a talent show. Was it a talent show? They were basically showing off their skills and looks. 

“Awww shucks, guys” Smokey said as they rubbed the back of their head. 

They performed some intricate yo-yo tricks, including the flying ability that spinning them has. 

After Smoky it was Rainbow, then Sunstone, then Opal, then Sardonyx. Ford pointed out that the fusions are getting pretty big. 

“You think that’s big?” 

And then there was Alexandrite 

“Holy shit!” Stan shouted as he realized the fusion was a lot bigger than he thought. 

Steven thought back on when he brough Alexandrite to meet Connie's parents for the first time. How he thought his family could pass as a nuclear family household. Granted at the time, he hardly knew what that meant...and he didn’t know that many other humans. All of the fusions except Alexandrite stook around after their displays of capabilities, and answered simplistic questions. Ford and Dipper were very excited to learn of all the new things. 

Hours had passed since they had gone outside in the first place. Ford was very admittedly writing every detail down in his journal, as Dipper was slowly losing his composure. It was getting late. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After they had gotten everything written down, they had decided to get inside and try to get some sleep. Then it was just Steven, the Gems, and Lion...on the roof of the building.

“You found an odd bunch here, Ste-man” Amethyst said with a smile, laying on the roof as they all were stargazing.

“Yeah” He said with a smile.

“And they are so enthusiastic about learning new things, and asked us appropriate questions, especially regarding our fusions” Pearl added. 

“ we’re happy you’ve made friends, and opening up to a new fusion” Garnet said as she reached a hand over to Steven, who took it. 

“We love you so much, Steven, we’re very proud of you”

“Thanks, I love you guys so much”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking about taking a break. Probably just a day. I need to recooperate. 
> 
> For some reason my kiddo decided that going to bed at 2:30 am is a good idea.
> 
> I hope you liked the Chapter, if not, next chapter is going to be better <3


	25. So This Is War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Isn't that what love is for?
> 
> :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have written a small side chapter for Steven. It is on my profile, however it is not for the faint of heart. please take caution.

“Are you ready?” 

“Totally Dude!” 

“Absolutely!” 

Two teams. Three against four. It’s totally fair since Steven is in the team with three. Him, Soos, and Wendy. 

Soos and Melody came to visit, but since the baby is taking a nap,Soos is joining in on the fun, while Melody is just relaxing, watching TV.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Alright you knuckle heads, this is war, whoever wins, gets to pick lunch, and bragging rights” Stan starts 

“We may have strength in numbers, but their advantage is Steven.” Ford added. 

“Why do they get Steven anyway?” Dipper asked

“Well it was Wendy’s idea for it to be ‘employees vs Pines’, as she puts it.” Ford Stated. 

“I for one, think this will be lot’s of fun!” Mabel said excitedly. 

They were in the beginning of a water balloon fight, or ‘war’ as Stan states it. The Mystery Shack team is just waiting for the Pine’s team to be ready. They were all wearing white t-shirts, Ford wore a long sleeve to avoid talking about his tattoos. Steven had gotten everyone water trunks, one team had the red trunks and the other had blue. All of the Pines Team’s balloons were filled with Blue dyed water, while the Shack team’s balloons were filled with red dyed water. Respectively. Mabel wanted to put glitter in the balloons, but everyone begged her not to. The team with the least color on them by the time the water balloons run out, wins. 

“Are you ready to begin the battle?” Wendy taunted, shouting across the field. 

“Oh you better believe it! You’re going down!” Mabel shouted back. 

This was going to be fun. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“5…  
4…  
3…  
2…  
1-” 

“FIRE” 

Steven was the first one to have one of his balloons hit someone. He was trying very hard to not throw anything too hard. It splattered right on Stan’s back leaving a huge red stain on his shirt. 

“I’m gonna get you!” Stan said with a smile on his face, but angry brows. As Steven was laughing, Dipper and Mabel managed to tag team and get Steven’s front and back. Which made him laugh more, and managed to smush two water balloons on the twins, getting them both soaked.

Ford was a little caught up with everyone laughing, that he didn’t notice Wendy and Soos were slowly making their way on his left and right. Ford dodged Soos’s throw but was hit by Wendy’s. 

He chucked two up in the air in both of their directions, and they both looked up but was slightly blinded by the sun and quickly looked down. As quickly as they went up, they both went down right on their heads. Luckily since they looked down, it just got their hair and shoulders wet. The color blue slowly dripped off their shoulders. Ford ran for cover before they could notice, restocking on water balloons. 

When he looked up, he noticed Stan’s whole shirt was already red, and Dipper and Mabel had managed to get the distracted Soos and Wendy, but their shirt’s were almost entirely red. He threw a few in Steven’s direction, who dodged it, and smirked at Ford. Ford just noticed that Steven was holding about five water balloons. He chucked four in the air above Ford and threw the Fifth one at them in the air, popping them all above Ford.

He had become completely drenched. His entire shirt was red. 

“Oh man, he sure got you Poindexter!” Stan laughed from a bit away, Wendy took this as a perfect opportunity to get the last of Stan’s shirt colored red. Dipper tried getting Soos, and Mabel went after Steven. They were running low on balloons, whatever they had in their hands was all they had left. 

Soos was successfully drenched in blue water. 

Steven honestly was too distracted by Mabel pretending to be serious, that he forgot to dodge. He was crackling up with laughter. Mabel laughs at how hilarious Steven thought it was. 

Ford threw his last balloon at Wendy, and it splattered on impact. 

There was just laughter that could be heard along with the air of anticipation. 

“Dudes, was that it?” Soos asked, while checking if he had any dry spots left. He did not. 

There was a slight silence, and then Dipper yelled out, 

“Yeah, we’re all out.” 

“Who won?” Stan asked, more like a demand. He really wanted to win. 

They all gathered in a circle, inspecting all of the shirts. They inspected all of them 

“mmm ...it looks like they beat us.” Ford said after adding up all of the stains. 

“YEAH DUDES! WE DID IT!” Soos said excitedly while high fiving Steven and Wendy. 

“That was real fun, guys,” Wendy said with not that much excitement showing, with mostly pride. 

“Yeah that was so much fun guys, and look, we got cool shirts to commemorate the occasion” Mabel said with a smile on her face,pulling out her shirt a bit to have it flattened. 

“Okay guy, what are you going to choose for us to eat?” Stan said with his arms crossed. 

“Team meeting,” Steven said while he grabbed Soos and Wendy and tugged them away from the Pines family. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Stan, Ford, Dipper, and Mabel waited for them to come back. Talking amongst themselves. 

“That was really fun guys, but it totally could have been better if you had just let me put glitter in the balloons” Mabel said while joking to be upset. However, her smile gave it away that she couldn’t be even the smallest amount of mad. 

“First of all, it would be itchy, second of all, if it got in our eyes, that would hurt bad. I mean, Grunkle Stan’s got his glasses,he would be a little protected. And Great uncle Ford has his contacts, it could get stuck underneath and really hurt” Dipper clarified. 

“Actually….” Ford cleared his throat “Steven healed my eyes, I forgot to mention it after it came out that he was half alien.” 

“HA, I knew you were lying about the contacts!” Stan said proudly. 

“Wait..that was soon after he got here...how long have you known?” Dipper asked, confused. Although the night before his Great uncle's eyes were healed, Steven was a crying and glowing pink. Maybe HE should have said something. 

“After his first night here, I believe.” Ford said with a hand on his chin. 

“Man...I wish he’d heal my eyes, I can’t see for shit” Stan said, squinting over at the other team’s direction as they were walking back. 

“I’m sure he’ll do it if you ask, Grunkle Stan” Mabel said with a shrug. 

“Hey! we’ve decided” Wendy shouted out as they got closer. 

“Well?” Stan asked back, dreading the worst. 

“Well since we’re all here, and the shack is closed, we were thinking, we could just have a barbeque?” Steven said with a palm up to the sky. 

Stan’s face grew into a grin and then a smile. That's what he would have picked. He had just bought everything for a barbeque.  
“Sounds fantastic! I’ll start the grill” and he ran off. 

“Wait Grunkle Stan, your clothes are still soaked!” Mabel said as she chased after him. 

Ford sighed  
“I’ll go make sure he doesn’t blow up the house…” 

The remaining people just slowly walked and talked on the way over to where everyone ran off to. 

This’ll be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought a little happiness wouldn't hurt. :)
> 
> That was a nice break, thank you everyone for understanding <3
> 
> So I will not be posting on Sunday because I will be working on Monday's chapter(s)  
> If you know, you know ;) 
> 
> Instagram inbox always open @Mother_Mortician_  
> (I'm missing Marching Band right now, odd, any other band geeks?)


	26. Discussions and Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tattoos and eyes, 
> 
> eyes on tattoos, 
> 
> no tattoos on eyes, ouch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pretty short chapter :T 
> 
> You guys are all great <3

It was getting pretty hot

Everyone had set out lawn chairs around a little kiddie pool that Mabel filled with water, so that they could rest their legs in it. Everyone seemed pretty relaxed, the wetness of their shirts cooled them off from the summer heat. The only one who didn’t seem relaxed by the coolness of the shirt was Ford. 

“Hey, are you okay?” Steven leaned over and asked. He was usually good at telling if someone wasn’t having a good time. Thanks to his empathic abilities. 

“Oh yeah, it just feels uncomfortable,” He said, lifting his arms. 

“Is it...because you’re in long sleeves? because right now it’s…” he paused and checked his phone “like 88 degrees fahrenheit..and rising” he said with his brows scrunched with concern. 

“Sort of” Ford said, looking away. He kind of hoped he could get away with never talking about his tattoos with his family. He trusted them, but he didn’t want them to tease him. His long sleeve shirt's collar also covered his neck. 

“You should go change, we’ll still be here when you get back” Steven said trying to be reassuring.  
“Yeah Grunkle Ford, it’s okay,” Mabel said with a bubbly smile. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Ford reluctantly agreed. He slowly trudged his way to the house. He tried thinking of the bright side, he could stop worrying about getting over heated. That is, if they don’t tease him about it. He still wants to cover his all star tattoo but it would feel nice to not worry. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Steven turned around when he heard footsteps getting closer. Ford was walking towards them with his hands behind his back, wearing a plain black t-shirt with his blue trunks that he was wearing before, except now without athletic leggings on. Steven noticed there were colorful designs on his legs. 

He watched as Ford awkwardly sat back down in his chair and put his feet in the kiddie pool and wrapped his arms around himself. 

“Hey Stan two, whatcha got on your arms there?” Wendy said with a brow raised, a slight smirk on her face. 

Ford’s shoulders just raised up and met his ears. 

“They look like tattoos,” Dipper added to the conversation, straightening up in his chair. 

“Oh my gosh, grunkle Ford you have tattoos?” Mabel said, buzzing excitedly. 

Steven was watching all of this happen, but he noticed how uncomfortable Ford looked. Like he was a turtle just trying to hide in its shell. He looked at the tattoos, which were accompanied by old scars, with a variation of size and shape. He felt like she should have noticed that when he healed his cut. 

“The one on your neck looks silly” Wendy added, a look of amusement on her face. Ford’s hand shot up to his neck to cover it. 

“Yeah okay, he has tattoos, who else is curious about what Stan’s making? I know I am.” Steven said light heartedly, but his eyes could show he’s irritated. Maybe they didn’t have ill intentions, but it’s obvious Ford didn’t like the attention he was getting because of it. 

“Mmm yeah you’re right, I don’t think we’ve checked in on him since he started up the grill.” Dipper said, accepting the change in topic. 

“Hey, I’m gonna go give him some company, Ford, do you want to come with me?” Steven offered while getting out of his chair. 

“Yes, I’m sure my brother would appreciate some assistance.” Ford said while getting up out of his chair. 

As they walked over, Ford still held his hands behind his back, there was silence for only a second.

“Hey Ford?” Steven started

“Yes, Steven?” 

“Do you regret them?” Steven asked calmly, showing no signs of an ulterior motive. 

There was a pause, and a sharp breath in 

“yes...I got them when I was traveling dimensions. I probably should have told the kids sooner though...” 

“Oh...Does Stan know?” 

“Yes, he’s known for a few years, he has actually tried convincing me to get more” 

“And have you?” Steven said with a raised brow. 

“Definitely not, however, he got drunk enough to let me choose his first tattoo, so now he has this” Ford says pointing to the tattoo on his neck “Tattooed on his chest.” 

Steven looked up at the tattoo on Ford’s neck, it says ‘hey now I’m an all star’ with a smiley Star with two thumbs up. 

“Why?” 

“Oh, he kept teasing me about it, now he is in no position to talk.” He finished that sentence off with a chuckle. 

When they got to Stan he was coughing on the smoke that came up from the grill. Steven Formed a shield and placed it between the grill and Stan. 

“You good?” Steven asked Stan as his coughing got lighter. 

“Oh yeah, totally, *cough* super duper good *cough cough* ” He took off his classes and wiped them clean.   
“OH! Kid, I have a favor to ask of ya” Stan asked after he was done coughing and placing his glasses back on. 

“Yeah sure, what is it?” 

“So I heard you fixed Sixer’s eyes, do you think you could fix mine too?” he said while pointing to his eyes. Just in case Steven had forgotten what eyes were. 

“Oh, uh, sure” then then paused “Uh….do you want the awkward way or the gross way?” He said with a scrunch to his whole face. 

“Uh….examples?” Stan asked hesitantly

“well...I have healing spit, so I could either...kiss your hand or lick my hand and touch you with it.” he paused at the grimace that appeared on Stan’s face. “Also I could..y’know just spit in your eyes” Steven said with a forced laugh and a small elbow nudge. 

Ford just made a small surprised owl face, while Stan just burst out laughing. Was it a good joke? Stan wasn’t really sure, but he felt like it was hilarious. 

“Ahah aww man...I’ll uh..take the spit pat, I guess” Stan said with a shrug. If THIS is what it takes, sure, it’s a lot better than losing his vision to his cataracts. 

Steven licked his hand and tapped Stan on his arm. 

Stan took off his glasses, and blinked hard several times. Which was quickly followed by a wince. He quickly took out his hearing aid to stop the pain. He could hear everything clearly. He also felt healthier. His chest felt lighter. 

Steven and Ford stood there in anticipation. Stan’s face slowly grew a wide smile. 

“Holy shit! This is amazing!” He quickly hugged Steven and picked him off the ground. Steven was incredibly happy at how happy Stan got that he was actually already floating off of the floor. Stan just thought ‘maybe Steven didn’t weigh that much’ since he didn’t have to try that hard to pick him up. 

“Thank you!” He was very clearly showing his excitement. Stan caught a glimpse of Ford, smiling at his brother's excitement. Stan’s eyes squinted at Ford. 

Ford was thinking that his brother might just try to regain his composure, act like he wasn’t as giddy as a little kid. However, instead of all of that, Stan just placed Steven back on the ground, let go, and grabbed Ford and hugged him, very tight. Ford wondered if Steven was being squeezed this tight, just not as affected by it. 

“Aww man Sixer, this is awesome,” and let go of his brother, but placed his hands on his shoulders.  
“Our birthday is in a few days, and we’re getting older, but I feel so much younger, Is this how you’ve felt since Steven healed you?” Stan said with a beaming smile. 

“Aha yeah, actually” Ford said, smiling at his brother. 

Steven’s brain was processing what Stan just said. 

“Wait wait wait wait..your birthday? When’s that?” Steven asked, while trying to act calm. 

“It’s the day after tomorrow, June 15th” Ford answered. 

“Do you have anything planned?” Steven said, excitement almost popping out of his seams. 

“Nah kid, but that’s okay” Stan answered with a genuine smile, like he was honestly fine with doing nothing for their birthday. 

“Ah, okay okay, cool” 

Time to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay guys,  
> I have decided to take a break from posting Saturday and Sunday (although I say that while posting at 1:30 am on saturday.)
> 
> In the next day *Steven starts planning a party, with a bit of help from Dipper and Mabel,*
> 
> Originally I was going to write chapter 27 as 'party planning comittee', but I really want the celebration to be a surprise. For everyone <3
> 
> I have a lot of stuff to write out for "Birthday of Two Stans". I was a little over excited for the party, that I was a bit distracted while writing this chapter. 
> 
> Man I hope you like it. 
> 
> I'm very excited. 
> 
> Tune back in on June 15th for a party :3 <3


	27. A Birthday of Two Stans (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Birthday Stanford and Stanley Pines! you're older <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will be continuing their birthday celebration throughout the day. Be ready for serveral updates today. 
> 
> Sorry not sorry.
> 
> It would have been way too long for just one chapter.

“So everyone knows the plan?” Steven asked quietly. 

He has spent the last day planning and organizing an event for the brothers. With the help of many people, hopefully everything will go according to plan. Not a solid plan, but an idea of a plan.

They were all sitting on the floor of the attic. Lion was cuddled up next to Steven on the floor. He had managed to sneak him in early that morning. 

“Yep, all we gotta do is pretend that breakfast is all we have planned” Dipper said with a stern nod. 

“Ahh I’m so excited” Mabel ‘whisper yelled’. 

Steven smiled at the twins. This’ll be fun. He was very excited to plan everything for this very day. He wished he could have known sooner, but he had gotten a lot accomplished. He did plan a wedding after all. 

They all quietly walked down to the kitchen. They had woken up extra early to get there before Ford. They started making French toast, coffee, eggs, and hash browns. Dipper made Stan bacon, because he was the only one who was willing to. This all kind of reminded him of when he and the gems remade the ‘together breakfast’.

By the time Ford woke up, the coffee had just finished brewing. He heard Steven’s medication alarm go off, so he knew he was upstairs, and he made his way to the kitchen. 

Once he entered the room he was attacked with a hug from Mabel.   
“Happy birthday, Grunkle Ford!” She said excitedly, without yelling right into his ear. 

He was very shocked. Normally the only ones awake were him at Steven at this time. So the surprise attack caught him off guard. Luckily, he realized it was Mabel before he threw her to the floor. 

“Why, thank you Mabel,” he said and hugged her back. He looked up to see Dipper smiling, waiting for his turn, and Steven taking his meds next to two mugs of coffee. Thankful Steven took his meds with water this time. 

“Happy birthday, Great Uncle Ford” Dipper said when it was finally his turn. 

“Yeah Happy birthday” Steven added with a smile. 

“We made you breakfast!” Mabel said joyfully. 

“Thank you kids” Ford said while sitting down. Soon as he sat down, Steven placed the coffee mug on the table in front of Ford. 

“OH! I need to wake up Grunkle Stan!” Mabel said while running out of the room. 

“Wait Mabel that’s not-...and she’s gone.” Ford said, sounded defeated. He was going to tell her that waking Stan up this early would be a bad idea.

Stan’s booming voice could be heard from the kitchen, he sounded very tired.   
“But if it’s my birthday, shouldn’t I be allowed to sleep in?” Stan said, rubbing his eyes, entering the kitchen. 

“C’mon, just sit down, we made a big ol’ breakfast for you geezers, and you’re going to eat it while it’s still hot.” Mabel said jokingly, while pushing Stan to the table.  
“Now sit.” She said sternly. It could have been intimidating if she didn’t follow it with a huge grin. 

As soon as Stan sat down, Steven placed a cup of coffee down in front of him. 

Now that they were both seated, Dipper, Mabel, and Steven started serving up their plates. The plates were served like they were at a fancy restaurant. There was a third plate that surprised both Stan and Ford. Steven placed down a plate in the center of the table of a giant strawberry that was sliced up, kind of like a large thanksgiving ham. 

“Eat up!” mable said, clapping her hands together. 

Stan and Ford exchanged looks then looked at the kids, who were all eagerly waiting for them to eat.

“Are you trying to poison us?” Stan asked with a raised brow, Ford shared the same expression. 

“What? No no no” Steven said defensively. 

“We would NEVER” Mabel added, but she sounded a little too sarcastic.   
Ford and Stan were now..less convinced. 

“We’re not trying to poison you, we’re just trying to make your birthday special.” Dipper said, finally convincing the old twins to finally start digging in.

“Oh my god…” was all Stan could say.  
“This is really good, thank you!” Ford added, extending Stan’s complement. 

Steven had actually stayed up late to make a loaf of bread, then used his recipe for french toast. A little extra, but worth it. He did have two restaurant owners beg him to not sell food since he’d put them out of business, so it’s not like his food is bad. 

While the Stans ate, the kids got ready for the second act of their plan. They didn’t really have to do much, they all just got dressed for the day. Dipper packed a small backpack with his journal, his phone, a digital camera, and small snacks. Mabel also packed her camera and phone, and she dropped Waddles off at Candy’s house the night before, so she didn’t worry too much. 

They all finished up and ran down stairs, Ford and Stan had just finished up washing their dishes. Mostly Ford. 

“Hey guys! How soon could you be ready to leave the house?” Mabel asked, as casually as she could. Ford looked at the time, then to Stan, then back at Mabel. 

“How does twenty minutes sound?'' Ford questioned. 

“Sounds perfect!” The kids said in unison. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stan and Ford stood in the living room, Stan and Ford were both wearing a short sleeve black button up shirts. Stan’s shirt had little pictures of boxing gloves and brass knuckles mixed in with red flowers. Ford wore a shirt with beakers and tiny robots mixed with blue flowers. Mabel designed the shirts and had them delivered before she even got to Gravity Falls. She told them they HAD to wear them, or she’ll cry. Of course, they complied. They both wore jeans, while Ford wore boots, Stan wore sneakers. Spiffy looking old men. 

If the kids didn't know about Ford's tattoos before, they would now.

“So guys are you ready to go?” Dipper asked as they all entered the room. 

“Yeah” Stan said with a smile.

“Great uncle Ford, you don’t want to bring your journal?” Dipper said, trying to be casual about it. 

“Should I?” She said with a raised brow, walking out of the room to get his journal. 

“Aha, I think you might,” Mabel said with a grin. 

Ford came back with a messenger bag, seemingly carrying his journal and some pens. 

“OH!, Ford, can you go grab those Oxygen Masks you made?” Steven said with a smile. Now Ford was even more confused. 

“I only have two made” His face was full of confusion, only with a touch of fear, he thought  
‘what did they plan?’ 

After Ford came back with the masks, Ford and Stan were instructed to put them on. As they put them on, Lion came into the living room. Then Steven proceeded to pick them up and place them into Lion’s mane. He peeked his head in. 

“Okay, hold tight!” 

“Uhhhh..” Stan mumbled.   
“Alright?” Ford added.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love these old men so much...and There is so much planned. Steven went all out. Lots and lots. 
> 
> lots of words.. get your reading glasses


	28. A Birthday of Two Stans (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let the fun begin <3

Soon they all went outside, and all the kids got on Lion’s back.   
Then Lion started running, and roared a portal.

A few, actually. 

Dipper held his camera out and video taped the whole thing, very thankful that his camera had a wrist strap. 

Mabel was just going “AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH” the entire time, like she was on a rollercoaster. 

Before they knew it, it was hot and they were by the beach. More like running on the ocean, towards the beach. 

Lion didn’t stop running until they were at the outskirts of ‘Little Homeworld’. Where the kids all dismounted Lion, Lion still walked beside Steven. 

As they entered Little HomeWorld, Mabel looked at everything in awe, while Dipper was basically vibrating, trying very hard not to scream from excitement. He took pictures of everything and everyone. Most gems smiled and gave the peace sign, or waved, when Dipper took their picture. Some just tried to completely ignore them.

The twins followed Steven to a…

“Spaceship!” Mabel yelled. Dipper tried to say something, but since his jaw dropped, he couldn’t talk. 

“Aha, not this time, maybe later, C’mon let’s go!” Steven said excitedly, leading them to a warp pad. He hardly told them his plan. All he needed help with was breakfast. He just told them ‘so we all make breakfast together, then I’ll take you all somewhere cool!’

Mabel, Dipper, Lion, and Steven all stood on the warp pad.

“Dipper you may want to record this.” Steven said preemptively. 

Dipper fumbled and turned on his camera, set to record. 

“Everyone hold on to me.” he paused and waited for them to comply. “Now let's go!” they were all engulfed in a bright light, only for a few seconds, then suddenly they were in a building? There were large murals on the walls.

When Dipper and Mabel took a step, they slightly floated off the air. 

“Steven...Where are we?” Dipper asked nervously. 

Steven just responded with a smile and “just wait and see” 

Steven told them to go up the stairs first, just in case he had to catch them. 

They entered a large room, with a glass dome instead of walls or windows. There was a long table on a pedestal, surrounded by chairs. They all looked to be made from gem technology. In the last couple of years, Bismuth, Lapis, and Peridot placed a warp pad, and fixed the command center. Instead of a huge chair for one person, they set it up so they all could all sit, the table could also be used to look at the old earth holograms and files.

“Are we on the moon?!” Mabel shouted. Dipper and Mabel looked all over, basically spinning in a circle.  
“We-we’re on the Moon!” Dipper screamed, a huge smile slapped onto his face. 

“Yep! Now I’m going to grab your Grunkles!” Steven said, diving into Lion’s mane. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~`

“Hey guys” Steven said with a smile. He tried not to use all his air.

Stan and Ford turned to see Steven’s head peeking out of the grass. 

“Take my hand and close your eyes!” Steven said to Ford, pulling him out, and Ford kept his eyes closed.

Steven repeated the same thing with Stan. 

When Steven told them to open their eyes, they were talking in front of the window. 

“Is that Earth-are we on the moon?” Ford said with his eyes wide as possible. 

“Holy shit! We’re on the moon! Okay okay, hold on let me try something!” Stan said then jumping off the ground.   
“AHAHAH! YES!” 

“I can’t believe this,” Ford said, excitement rising in his voice. “We were twenty four years old when they landed on the moon, of course it wasn’t something I was trying to accomplish but I’d dream about it..wow” Ford said, looking out the window. 

“Grunkle Stan, I bet I could jump higher than you!” Mabel said, egging him on.

“HA in your dreams, Pumpkin!” 

The next ten minutes were spent jumping in the air. All of them. Dipper and Ford pretended they were having a jedi battle, while the remaining just jumped and bounced off of the walls and each other. They all ended up bouncing into each other and slowly fell towards the ground, laughing in the process. 

After the initial excitement died down, they proceeded to take pictures. Ford and Dipper we’re sitting up by the table drawing pictures of everything they could see. In addition to that, Steven put a bubble around his head and grabbed some moon rocks for everyone, thanks to the assistance of a rope that Amethyst put there since their last visit. 

After about a whole hour on the moon, All of their heads started hurting, not badly, just noticeable. They all stood on the warp pad and shot back to Earth. 

If Stan and Ford still wore their glasses, they would have flown out into space.   
“That was amazing! Was that teleportation or quick travel?” Ford asked, writing about the experience. 

“I’m not super sure” Steven answered “I know I should know, but I don’t remember right now” he added. 

Ford thought he was amazed by the moon, but looking around him was a town, full of aliens and strange architecture.  
“Are we on Earth…?” Ford asked 

“Oh yeah! This is Little Homeworld, right next to Beach City on Earth” Steven said smiling, gesturing to the town. 

They spent the next few hours going from place to place. They peeked in a few summer classes that were in session. Ford wanted to stay and sit in on the classes, but Stan told him that since it’s their birthday, he had a say too, and Stan said no. Steven reassured him that they could come back on another day, or he could just drop him off, if anything. 

By lunch time, they had stopped off at Steven’s house. Steven was very busy planning with everyone, they made a huge meal for all of them. Not the most extreme meal, it was just a bunch of Sandwiches, but he very casually asked what their favorite sandwich ingredients were in the last few days. He had come to Beach City early that morning, hung out with the gems while preparing the food. Steven is currently functioning on four hours of sleep. He likes going all out. So extra. 

“So Steven, this is your house?” Mabel said while walking around after finishing her sandwich. Looking at all of the things Steven had on the walls. 

“Yeah, I guess, my dad currently lives in my old room, but if I ever wanted to come back, they said I could,” Steven said before taking his last bite. 

“Where is your old man anyways?” Stan asked, with his mouth full of the last of his sandwich. 

“Oh uh…..” Steven quickly darted his eyes around the room, trying to come up with a lie “he’s...busy..”. Not a lie, but he’s making himself look suspicious. 

“Riiiggght” Dipper said, seeing through the lack of facade.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After everyone ate they shared small talk, while Steven washed the dishes, with a surprise appearance of Pearl. She came in just to speed up the process. 

Steven checked his phone. Okay, still lots of time. He quickly turned around, and clapped his hands together once

“Okay guys, there are several options for this next part… there is a movie that I know you both want to see in the theaters...there's the beach… funland...aaaannnd nap?” Steven ended that with a small chuckle. Napping did sound fantastic to him, he was getting very tired. These were old guys, how could they have so much energy? Well Steven just healed them..maybe it’s that. Well for Stan. Ford was pretty in shape. 

“What’s at Funland?” Stan asked, a lopsided smile on his face. 

“Oh you know...arcade, roller coasters, rides, and games you can win prizes at.” Steven did previously think that he should have brought them to Homeworld, but he wanted it to be fun, not just a tour or something. Homeworld would probably take up a whole day. 

Although Ford wasn’t really up for roller coasters at the time, he thought ‘what they hell, why not?’ Considering the look everyone got at the idea, he couldn’t just say no. 

“Does that sound like something everyone wants to do?” Ford asked, already suspecting the answer. 

“YEAH!” was shouted back by the rest of the Pines. Ford and Steven did not share their enthusiasm. However, they were happy that the others were happy. 

They stayed at Funland for a while, surprisingly Stan and Ford both got on a roller coaster with the kids. 

However, they both almost threw up immediately after. Dipper and Mabel got pictures. Thankfully, Steven tapped them both with a spit covered finger and they felt better. No vomit came from them. Yay. 

Occasionally they would run into gems, and strike up a small conversation. 

There came a point where Dipper and Mabel went on the rides, while Ford, Stan, and Steven stood on the side. 

“Are you having a good day so far?” Steven asked, a hopeful smile on his face. 

“Hell Yeah, Steven” Stan said, patting Steven’s shoulder. 

“It has been amazing” Ford smiled at Steven, “thank you” 

“Hey how do you guys feel about rock music?” Steven asked, baiting a response. 

“I love it” Stan stated,   
“I’m okay with it,” Ford answered with a shrug. 

“Alcohol?” was all Steven asked. 

“Yeah, sure, that’s fun” Stan answered with a shrug, but a smile slowly crept on his face, but beamed when he heard his brother’s response

“Yeah, haven’t drank in a while, but I had fun with it a few times in college, i suppose” 

“Oh hohoho, Pointdexter, you were going to parties at university?” Stan said, slightly nudging him with his elbow. 

“Well sure, though, I never really knew that many people there, maybe one or two.” he said, trying to act tough, but he looked like he was going to laugh. 

“Hey do you mind if I go, and come back in a bit?” Steven said checking the time. 

“Yeah, that’s fine” Stan answered. 

“Don’t leave Funland.” Steven demanded with a smile and two thumbs up. 

Not suspicious at all, Steven. 

He then turned pink and zoomed off. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Wonder what that was all about” Stan said as soon as Steven left. 

“mmm...I wonder if he's getting alcohol…” Ford said with his eyes squinted in the direction Steven ran towards. 

“Aha okay, sure, he’s seventeen, he couldn’t even buy alcohol, even if he wanted to” Stan said with laughter in his throat, but it quickly shifted when he saw Ford’s face. Joking laughter to confused laughter.   
“W-what? why are you thinking that?” 

“Well, Steven can fluctuate his age, depending on how he feels, if he convinces himself he feels like an adult, he could become one. So technically, he could buy alcohol, with no problems.” 

“Oh...does that mean he could drink alcohol?” 

“I… I’m not sure.” Ford answered with his brows scrunched. "Technically he's still seventeen...but he can fluctuate drastically enough that he can appear even older than us."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

As the sun was beginning to set, Steven had returned to retrieve the Pines family. 

“Heeeey everyone, you wanna go see a rock show?” Steven questioned. 

Oh this should be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finale will be posted around 6pm West Coast, USA time. 
> 
> Finale may or may not contain alcohol consumtion. 
> 
> (maybe underage drinking) 
> 
> (I do not condone underage drinking) 
> 
> (drink responsibly)


	29. A Birthday of Two Stans (Part 3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> what's wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning.   
> Underage drinking.   
> I do not condone underage drinking.   
> drink responsibly.

When they had reached the concert area, it was just getting started. There wasn’t even a stage in this area when they walked by earlier. They set everything up while they were at Funland. 

Mabel screamed 

“It’s..it’s Sadie Killer and the Suspects!?” 

“Maybe” Steven said with a smirk. 

“B-but they broke up” Mabel said, shocked. 

“Yeah, but they’re still friends” He smiled. 

“Are they performing?” 

“No, well.. Sadie and Shep are performing together to start everything off, then a band or two,” Steven smiled. He didn’t want to ruin the surprise that Sadie Killer and The Suspects were getting together on August 31. That’ll ruin the surprise. Steven smiled looking directly at Stan and Ford, his smile was growing as he looked back at the stage, darting his eyes back and forth. Trying to hint them to look at the bands near the stage. 

Stan glanced at the stage and saw his favorite band.   
“Holy hell! Is that who I think that is?” Stan had a huge grin on his face. 

Steven just smiled and nodded. 

It was one of Stan’s favorite bands from when he was living in his car, while he was trying to get Ford back, and while he was on the Stan O War II with Ford. It always made him feel better when he felt like everything was falling apart. It was rock and roll, but it alway made him happy. 

Ford remembered them as the band Stan would play when he’d get ready in the morning. He enjoyed the music, it reminded him of Stan. Stan being happy. 

There were tons of people there. Lots of Beach City citizens, but most of the people just liked the band that Steven and Greg managed to get to perform. 

Speaking of Greg, 

“Hey Stu-ball!” Greg came from the crowd once he saw Steven. 

“Dad!” he says and runs to hug him, actually lifting him off the floor. 

“You just saw me last night and this morning” Greg said with a laugh “but I missed you too” Steven put his dad down. 

“So everyone, this is my dad, dad this is Ford, Stan, Mabel, and Dipper Pines” Steven said while gesturing to the person he named. 

“Nice to meet you all, and happy birthday you two” Greg said to Stan and Ford. 

“Nice to meet ya” Stan said while waving to Greg. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, your son is quite amazing” Ford said, shaking Greg’s hand. 

Greg was already told by Steven that Ford had six fingers, but he couldn’t resist making a comment.   
“Wow, the only other six fingered hand shake I’ve ever gotten was from a fusion” Greg said with a laugh. 

Ford laughed, he remembered Steven made a similar comment the first time he shook hands with him. Probably the same gem. 

“Steven, is it alright if I take the Birthday twins to go meet the band?” Greg asked. 

“Yeah, go ahead dad” Steven smiled back to his dad, before Greg got to far Steven called out “wait, dad? Could I get a drink?” Steven said gesturing to the table. Greg squinted his eyes just for a second, only to respond 

“Sure, just be safe” 

“Grunkle Stan?” Dipper called out. 

Ford and Stan exchanged looks, Ford didn’t think it was a great idea, but they were close to Steven’s house...and Stan did always say if the police weren’t around anything was legal. 

“Sure, kids, just be smart” 

And with that, the ‘adults’ had left. 

Steven, Dipper, and Mabel all went over the table, and grabbed their drinks. Steven has drunk alcohol before, but Dipper and Mabel thought they’d get in trouble with their parents, and were too nervous to ask their grunkles. 

Dipper and Mabel’s faces reacted similarly. Their faces scrunched up, and they exchanged glances. They continued to drink for the rest of the night. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

When Stan met the band, he acted cool and collected, Greg was completely relaxed, and Ford was happy but mostly supportive of Stan. As soon as the band went on stage, Greg said he had to go out and get some stuff done, but he’ll meet back with them.

As soon as Greg left, Stan breathed a heavy sign   
“Holy Moses, Ford, I just met them, they said my name, we shook hands” All of these words came spewing out of Stan like water from a broken sprinkler head.

“Are you okay, Stanley?” Ford said with a brow raised, he knew his brother was excited but not this excited. 

“No yeah no, totally. Say, let’s get some drinks, it’s our birthday, let’s get wasted” Stan said, his voice rising. 

“Getting wasted is not ideal, we’re supposed to be watching the kids” Ford responded. 

“They’re seventeen, and from what Steven says, there are more allies here than anything else. If not, we saw what Steven did to those guys who tried messing with our little girl, the kids are safe, c’mon Sixer, pleeeaaaassseee” 

“Mmmmm….okay fine.” Ford gave into his brother’s pleading. 

Stan had challenged Ford to a competition. Whoever drinks the most shots, is the Alpha twin. 

Ford didn’t really care who was the Alpha twin, though he only told himself this because he knows Stan can drink more than he can. 

Stan down about ten before he stops, Ford only got to seven. Coincidentally as soon as Stan shouted ‘Alpha Twin’ fireworks shot into the air. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It had been over an hour, and the kids drank a little too much. They decided to go to Steven’s house and sit by the fireplace. 

“Oh c’moonn you KnOw shE liKEs you Dippy dip dop” Mabel slurred. 

“Nah MaBel, if She liKed Me, sHe’d tell mE” Dipper spoke back. 

“ShE LeAvEs ObvIous hiNts” Mabel said back. 

“I gOt to AgRee with MabEl, sHe haS a pOint” Steven added, he never drank this much before.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“STANFORD, YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU” Stan was currently standing on the stage, speaking into the microphone. 

At this point, no one was even at the concert, it’s over. Greg just left things out for the guys to goof off. Greg ended up getting drunk with Stan and Ford, he thought they were really funny guys. They told stories of how things were on their ship, and Greg told them about being a rock star and living in his van. 

“I KNOW STANLEY!” Ford shouted back. “I LOVE YOU TOO” 

Greg was laughing at the guys shouting at each other. Considering they were both on stage, speaking into an off microphone. 

“I MISSED YOU SO MUCH” Stan shouted. 

“I KNOW STAN, I MISSED YOU TOO” 

This yelling back and forth continued for quite some time. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The kids have decided to play ‘Never Have I Ever’, because nothing can go wrong with that. 

“OkaY okay… NeveR haVe I eVer… paiNted mY oWn nAiLs” Dipper said holding up six fingers. 

Steven and Mabel both put down a finger, Steven had one finger left, while Mabel had four. After playing for a while, and their thoughts hazy, Mabel didn’t think super hard about what her question would be, she just thought it’d help her skip a turn. 

“NeVer haVE I EvER…. cOmmiTed MuRder” Mabel laughed at her outrageous statement. Dipper laughed too. How ridiculous, right? 

Steven put a finger down. He was out of the game. 

“OkkAyy Steevvon, YoUr TUrn” Mabel laughed. 

Steven just sat there quietly and stared at his hands. This game wasn’t a good idea. 

“Oh C’Monnn” Dipper egged. 

“I….can’t…” Steven mumbled. 

“AWWW wHy Not?” Mabel asked, still in a giggly mood. 

“I’m...out..” Steven whispered. “I lost..” 

“w-whAt do yOu MeAn…?” Dipper asked, his giggly mood vanishing. 

Steven looked down at his closed hands. No fingers up, he lost.

Game Over. 

“Y-yOu KILLED SOMEONE?” Dipper’s voice raised. His hand reaching out for Mabel and pulling her away from Steven. 

Steven stayed silent.

“No...no... ThaT DoeSn’t maKe Any SenSe” Mabel said, confused, trying to shake Dipper’s hand off of her.   
“nO..SteVen..YoU’re a gOod guy” Finally getting free and reaching for Steven. Steven flinched and quickly turned pink as he pulled away from Mabel. Dipper reached back out and pulled Mabel away from Steven.

“nO….no no no ThaT DoesN’t MaKe SenSe, nO DiPper Let go!” 

Steven looked up at Mabel, she looked so concerned, Dipper looked so defensive. 

‘I should leave’ Steven thought to himself. Although he knew he could probably clear the air, and be honest, he was too drunk to think rationally. He quickly ran out of the house. 

Dipper and Mabel blinked and it was like Steven was never there. Mabel and Dipper quietly talked amongst themselves. Dipper thought chasing after him would be a bad idea. 

Suddenly there were loud thunks coming towards the door, Greg and Ford were pulling Stan up the stairs, he drank even more. Terrible idea. Though Ford and Greg weren’t that sober themselves. Ford was the least drunk of the three.

“HeLlo ChilDren” Ford said, trying to sound as stable as possible.

Greg placed Stan on the couch, but fell onto the couch too. Soon they were both asleep. Ford sat down onto the couch and placed his face into his palms. 

“Grunkle FOrd..?” Mabel asked from the floor by the fireplace. 

He slowly lifted his head from his hands, looking at what looked like two Mabels.   
“YeSs, sweetheart…? He whispered, his head ringing. 

“Do... you thiNk Steven iS a bAd guy?” Dipper asked, trying not to sound drunk. 

Ford pulled on his face, and looked back at Stan.   
“Of CourSe nOt...He pLanned tHis whOle daY for mE and Stan….Stan and I…?” 

“Do you... know that he killed someone?” The most sober sentence to come from Dipper’s mouth.

Ford quickly looked up at his Niece and Nephew, and from their expressions, they looked drunk and they looked scared. 

“I...did know that…but it’s not what you….” Ford looked around the room “where’s Steven?” 

“He left”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When you're drunk, you don't think clearly.


	30. Explanation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ford explains things to the kids
> 
> (Correction, Drunk Ford explains things to the kids, so it's a little too much, TMI)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized I started this story exactly a month ago. oh wow. and almost 400 kudos on this story, oh geeze, thank you so much, I am overjoyed, when I started I didn't think many people would read this. I really love writing this story, I hope you've enjoyed reading it so far <3
> 
> hopefully you enjoy chapter 30.

“How are you...so okay with him?... With us?” 

Dipper was trying very hard to talk properly. He didn’t want to sound too drunk in front of Ford. 

“I trust him… He…” His head started pounding “hold on…” he got up and grabbed a cup from the sink and just filled it from the faucet, drinking the whole cup before talking.

“You should drink some water…” He said while filling up the cup again, handing it to Dipper, who drank and handed it to Mabel. Ford sits on the floor in front of the fire with the kids. 

“Steven he...he’s gone through a lot...he was doubting himself...his human half..his gem half...he had to deal with his mom's mistakes...or at least felt like he was expected to… and there was a gem...Jasper….when Steven was a kid she knocked him unconscious and imprisoned him...continuously tried beating him...once she found out he was Pink Diamond...she stopped trying to go after him...however when everything was falling apart for him..he went to her...and she trained him to use his strength..which he felt like he always had to hold back...they fought for sake of showing her what he could do...she told him over and over to not hold back...that she could take it...so he didn’t hold back...and…. He shattered her...killed her….” Ford paused and looked at his niece and nephew. They looked horrified. 

“He got all of her pieces and brought her back to life...she praised his strength...but all of this caused him to spiral further and further down… he kept getting worse...eventually he told his family.. he felt like a fraud… because everyone thought he was positive and happy and good...he felt like a monster...then he became one…” 

Ford put a hand on Dipper and Mabel’s shoulders. His expression pained. 

“He turned into a huge monster...destroyed this house...attacked his family...his mind muddled in pain...he couldn’t think at all...he was the monster..and it took over…his family got through to him...and he became normal again...well physically normal… but it’s not like he felt better...he still felt like a monster… he felt like he was going to accidentally kill Connie..or his family...and he…” Ford's voice broke. Dipper and Mabel noticed Ford’s eyes welling up. “Steven he...tried killing himself…and if his family didn’t find him he...” 

Ford didn’t cry nor did his voice break but he couldn’t talk anymore. Thoughts were overwhelming his mind. He remembered being worried about Dipper contemplating the thought. He remembered Stanley telling him that he was planning to do it when he was way in over his head with problems. Despite the difficulty of speaking he pushed on,

“He has tried continuously to make up for his mistakes...Jasper tells him she’s not mad...and his family forgave him...but it still hurts him...he’s still worried...he tries not to hurt people…” he paused and looked at Mabel 

“When he found out what happened to the guys that tried attacking you...tried...taking you...finding out that they were in the hospital… severe damage… he broke down… when I found him he was glowly pink and crying… he had small splotches forming on his skin… even though he knew that we were happy that they were hurt… he still felt wrong for hurting people…” after everything he said, he thought that maybe telling the kids all of that wasn’t a good idea..especially the personal things about Steven.

In his defense, he was drunk, and the words just spewed out. No filter preventing words to be said.

Dipper and Mabel sat quietly. They didn’t know how to feel. Dipper knew Ford did not trust others very easily, well easier now than when he first returned, but he knew that if Ford can say he trusts someone, he really does. Dipper was confused, he understood, but he just couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

Mabel understood, she knew Steven wasn’t a bad guy,   
‘everyone makes mistakes, it’s not like he’s some heartless maniac, he did save me….and even though the guys were bad...he felt terrible about hurting them…’ Mabel’s thoughts were louder in her head, but couldn’t put her words together out her mouth.

“how...do you know all this..? You don’t think he’s lying to you…?” Dipper asked, doubting someone who he trusted did not feel good. 

“It’s what I saw when we had fused, it was something he didn’t want to share because it hurts him to think of...but our fusion had a very vivid memory… Steven had also seen everything that had happened with me...just….Just know he would never hurt you two...he cares about all of us very much…” 

“So...you don’t think he’s a murderer…?” Mabel asked quietly. 

“I do not...but he feels like it… “ 

“Oh…” 

There was a silence that filled the room. Ford hoped he convinced the kids that Steven wasn’t bad. Although he wasn’t sure how everything was phrased. He felt like he should do something.

“Okay...you should go to sleep...I’m going to see if I could find the gems..or Steven…” Ford took the cup of water and drank some more before leaving the room. He walked out of the house, and started dialing Pearl, very thankful Steven had provided it. 

“Hello? Who’s this?” Pearl said on the other side of the time. 

“This is Stanford Pines, have you seen Steven?” He asked, trying to sound sober, and at least all this adrenaline had made him at least feel not as drunk. 

“No, I haven’t, is something wrong?” Pearl asked, with concern in her voice. 

Ford was looking up into the sky

“Well… something happened between him and the twins, apparently he ran off...and I don’t believe he is in the best state of mind” 

“Okay” and there was a click. There was a bright beam behind him on the warp pad. Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet entered the house. They glanced around at all the unconscious humans in the house, but when they looked up and saw Ford they ran over to him. 

“Do you know what the topic was that caused his reaction?” Pearl asked. 

There were many different places he could go for specific things. He was in Beach City after all, everything did happen here, except for what happened on Homeworld, of course. 

“It involved what he had done to Jasper…” 

The gems exchanged looks, they knew it happened, but it was still difficult to think about. 

“You know about that?” Amethyst asked quietly. 

Ford nodded, his brows scrunched with a pained expression. 

“Stanford” Garnet placed a hand on his shoulder “I understand you are concerned, and we appreciate it, but you need rest, we will look for him” 

Before Ford could protest, they jumped and left.   
He thought ‘yeah that makes sense..they are his family’. He heeded their advice and went back inside. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The sky was dark when Dipper heard something that woke him up. Maybe it was his head pounding or his need to throw up that woke him, but he could have sworn he heard something. He wasn’t sure what it was, because when he looked around, it was silent and quiet. He listened again, he heard gentle humming coming from outside. 

Dipper stumbled towards the sound of the humming. It sounded like it was coming from someone who had a harsh voice. Dipper peeked outside and saw Alexandrite holding something that he couldn’t see. She was leaning against the cliff side, off to the side, away from the house. Her humming vibrated in his chest, it was loud but gentle... It made him feel comfort. Like being wrapped in a big blanket. 

He wasn’t sure what she was doing, but he slid down the wall inside the house by the door. 

He wondered if Steven was okay, as he was slowly lulled back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you'll find out his past wherabouts soon enough.
> 
> you like it? I hope everyone is having a good day!   
> Thank you all for reading <3 I appreciate all of you :) 
> 
> as some of you may have noticed, new profile picture of Steven as Mr. Mystery  
> Full size image avaliable on my instagram @Mother_Mortician_   
> also some other art of Mable and Dipper, I love it so much. I even commissioned another piece that I'll share with you guys when it's done <3  
> Art was done by @Twig._ on instagram. Go check out their page and support them!


	31. Hungover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pretty short, 
> 
> mostly set up.

That night was hard for Steven. 

By the time the gems had found Steven the small dark splotches on his skin had gotten bigger, and he was in a bubble under the ground where the cluster used to be. The only reason they were able to find him was because he was glowing so brightly that they were able to see the lights through the cracks in the ocean floor. They formed Alexandrite and were able to grab the bubble from the ground. 

Once they had pulled him from the water he popped his bubbled and just laid there in their hand.  
They said  
“Please calm down and talk to us” 

His density changed and he became very hard to hold, they sat against the wall near the temple. Holding him on their lap. 

“Steven we’re here...We love you...please talk to us…” 

HIs density changed back to normal and they lifted him up in their hands. 

“I’m bad…” 

“No you’re not, Steven.”

“I’m bad...a-and I shattered Jasper...and I tried to shatter white diamond..Pink never did anything like that...I’m worse…I-I...I’m...” he was going to call himself a monster. No matter how much time had passed, he still felt like a monster for what he had done. His therapist told him that he needs to come to terms with it, and he can only improve from there. However, when anything bad had happened, he didn’t take it well. 

“Steven..you’re good...we love you so much..you fixed Jasper...you’ve been forgiven...you need to forgive yourself…” 

She pulls him up, and hugs him. At least the closest to a hug that a giant could give someone. She held him while he cried. They debated whether they should unfuse or not, but they decided against it once Steven started calming down. 

His crying decreased, along with his color, and the dark spots vanished as his glow ceased to be. They held onto him like he was a tiny kitten against their chest. They hummed until he fell asleep, and long after that.

They let Steven sleep for as long as he wanted, they held him and quietly hummed until he decided to wake up. 

When he finally woke up it was eleven in the morning.

His head was throbbing and he felt sick. Alexandrite unfused when he had woken up. They broke into four gems, they were pretty exhausted from holding such a form for so long. 

“Hey guys…” Steven said as he looked at all of the gems.  
“Thank you so much...I love you guys…” 

They all ran to him, one gem on each side of him, boxing him in. They expressed their love for him, and he told them he really appreciated all of them. 

Their hugs gave him comfort, he missed them a lot. Sure, he just saw them, but it’s been a few days.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Around noon everyone else had woken up.

“My head is killing me,” Stan said in his usual loud voice.

“Shhhhhhhhhh….” Ford responded. Despite drinking water and attempting to sober up, he was still hung over, every noise ringing in his ears. 

Greg’s hands were at his temples, his eyes scrunched closed. 

Dipper’s back was sore from sitting up against the wall for a few hours, and Mabel wondered how he even got over there. 

They looked around and noticed Steven was still gone, at least not in the room with them. 

“Hey Dipper, are you doing okay?” Mabel whispered. 

“Yeah...my head hurts...and I may throw up… but I’m okay…” 

“How do you feel...about Steven…?” 

“I...I’m not sure...I understand that he isn’t some crazy murderer...but that was a crap way of telling us…” 

“Dipper...we were all pretty drunk...I’m sure he didn’t plan on telling us that way…”

“I’m sure he wasn't planning on telling us at all…”  
Dipper paused and looked around, Steven was still gone.

“Have you guys seen Steven?” Dipper asked the table of older men

Greg got up, and walked upstairs, hoping his son was up there in bed. He wondered how his night went. Thinking he should have tried to spend time with him while he was visiting.. He did say he’ll visit soon. 

Perfect...he was in a deep sleep. He thought about waking him up, since it was getting close to one in the afternoon... but he looked at how peaceful his son looked wrapped up in the blankets. He decided to head back down stairs, let him sleep.

Steven wasn’t forgetting something, was he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How's everyone doing?  
> If you read my instagram story, I wrote a little tid bit that applies to the story. A little hint I suppose. For this and the next chapter. 
> 
> @mother_mortician_ 


	32. Something Forgotten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven has a depressive episode

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so uh...trigger warning, I suppose.   
> Depressive episode.
> 
> (I'm good, don't worry) <3

“Since Steven’s still sleeping, can we go and check out Beach City and Little Homeworld?”

Dipper’s suggestion surprised the room. He wasn’t asking because he wanted to leave Steven behind or anything like that, more like a kid on christmas morning being told they can’t wake their parents to open presents until a certain time. Everyone had already been awake for four hours, he was getting fidgety. He really wanted to go out and explore, because he knew Steven had plans for the birthday the day before. 

“Shouldn’t we wait for him..or try waking him up?” Mabel asked, slightly concerned with Dipper’s motives. 

“Well the gems told me this morning that Steven didn’t go to sleep until really late, so it makes sense for him to sleep, you guys can go ahead and explore” Greg chimed in with a tired smile.   
“I’ll let him know you went around the city, I’ll have him call you when he wakes up”. 

“Oh, alright” Stanley stated

Ford was quiet, he knew Steven wasn’t doing so good that night. He wondered if his niece and nephew remembered what happened that night. Part of him wondered if what he thought happened that night actually happened or not. Maybe it was all a dream that his drunken self made up. He hoped for the best. 

They set off. Into the city they went.

There were more gems out that day, and an occasional spaceship would fly overhead. It was hot, but the gems were all out playing sports or relaxing. Even though they saw many gems at Funland, Beach City had gems all over the place. 

Over time, many gems wanted to venture out, get jobs, move into apartments and have human roommates, adopt pets, and develop relationships. Throughout the city every restaurant and business had small stickers by the entrances. They had a sticker of the flag that flew from Steven’s house, a pride flag, and a circle with the word ‘hate’ crossed over. Thus indicating that they will not tolerate hate. Not towards gems, other races and nationalities, sexual orientation, or expression, and so on and so forth. The only things tolerated to be hated against is injustice, inequalities, and bigotry. Along with other negatives. 

The Pines family felt very comfortable in beach city, the weirdness and acceptance of it made them all feel pretty good. 

“HEY!” a green gem yelled from a while away. 

They all paused and turned to the gem. 

“Hey are you Ford?” The gem asked, excitedly. 

“Yes?” he said, slightly confused

“I’m Lemon Jade or Jade, ah!, okay so Steven told me about you! He said you had six fingers too. I told him that was crazy! A human with six fingers? But look at you! Amazing! --” she kept going on for a bit, very excitedly. Ford regretted not drinking coffee.   
“SO! Anyway, I just wanted to know if I could have a high six?” She asked, a little nervous, like she was talking to someone famous. Ford smiled at the request.

She raised her hand, he noticed she also had six fingers, and Ford finally made a connection that this was the person that Steven mentioned. 

He met her hand with his, enthusiastically. 

“High six” 

Her eyes beamed with excitement   
“That was so cool! I’ve never actually done that with someone else with six fingers! Just myself” she got a little nervous after saying that last part. 

Jade joined the group for a bit to talk to Ford as they all walked around the city.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Steven...you gotta get up buddy…” Greg said, sitting next to Steven on the bed, his hand gently on his son. 

“I don’t want to…” 

“You’re friends are out walking around in the city” Greg added, trying to encourage Steven to get up.

“Great, they can do that without me” Steven responded flatly. Rolling over in the bed, so that his back was facing his dad. 

“Stu-ball...don’t you want to hang out with your friends?” Greg asked gently. 

“I don’t think they like me very much…” he said quietly. 

Greg expression changed from gentle to shocked  
“Why would you say that?” 

“They know more about me than they’d like to...I’m sure that they won’t want me in their house anymore…” 

“Like what…?” Greg asked cautiously. 

“Like jasper…” 

“Well You said Ford knows about that, and he still really likes you, right?” Greg said hopeful. 

“Well...that’s Ford. Dipper and Mabel think I’m a monster…” even though Steven said it flatly, he started glowing.

Greg’s brows scrunched up  
“Steven...I’m sure they don’t think you’re a….” He cut himself off. He knows it’s not a good word for Steven to hear.   
“I’m sure they’re just a little confused...but it’ll work out”

Steven started sinking into the bed, dark purplish blotches appearing on different parts of his body.   
“I don’t believe you…” 

“Steven…” he says as he reaches out to touch Steven. As soon as Greg touched Steven flinched and pushed his dad’s touch off.

“Can you just leave me alone…” he says emotionless. 

“You know I’m not going to do that...right?” Greg said, his voice pained, he didn’t like seeing Steven like this. 

Steven remained silent. 

“Steven...would it help to know that I love you? That I’m glad you're a part of my life still…...no matter what has happened.” 

There was a short silence, the dark splotches spread,   
“No… you just feel like you have to say that...you don’t want me to destroy the house…” 

“You know I mean it Steven…” This attitude reminded Greg of Steven’s past behavior...soon after everything happened. He couldn’t place a finger on it. It couldn’t just be Mabel and Dipper finding out..

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“OOO they have Pizza!” Mabel said excitedly when she saw the sign. 

“Mabel no...there’s fish on the pizza….” 

“Dipper, I’m sure you could order a pizza without fish on it,” Stan reassured him, but in a slight mocking manner. 

They decide to get the Pizza from FIshstew Pizza. To Dipper’s surprise, it didn’t smell fishy, occasionally they would smell fried fish, but it didn’t smell bad. They sat, ate, and laughed all for close to two whole hours. 

“I wonder how Steven’s doing...it’s already almost five…” Ford said looking up, out the window. 

Mabel and Dipper exchanged looks of concern, Mabel looked up at her Grunkle Stan who’s brows scrunched a bit. 

“Yeah we should probably head back…” Mabel added. 

They leave a tip, and head out of the restaurant. 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Steven’s phone starts ringing. 

He completely ignored four whole phone calls. 

He made his dad leave, even though he knew his dad was probably sitting on the staircase, and occasionally checking in. 

Steven knows it’s Connie, but he didn’t want her to see him like this. 

His phone rang again. This time the ringtone was different. It was the tone he set for Mabel. 

He ignored it. 

Suddenly he heard his front door open, and his dad’s voice in a low hush. Footsteps made their way up to his room. 

“Steven..?” 

No response, not even the slightest of movements. 

She goes over and sits by his head, he slowly looks up and into her eyes, his pupils diamonds. 

“Do you need anything..?” Connie asks gently. 

He averts his line of sight and looks out the window   
“No”

“Have you had any fluids?” She asked softly, leaning her face closer. 

“No” 

“Could you drink some?” She suggests, lifting the water bottle she placed on the floor. 

“I guess so…” he picked up the bottle and drank a small bit, before handing it back. 

“Can I hold you…?” She asked, hoping to give him some sort of comfort, so he can try calming down. 

He just looks back up at her, but says nothing. His eyes hollow. Then looking back out the window, or the wall, it was hard for Connie to tell.

She didn’t wait for an answer, she gently placed his head next to her lap, and stroked his hair. She tried lifting his head, but he was still too heavy. 

“Do you know that I love you?” She asked gently. 

He doesn’t respond. 

“I love you, Steven… I know you’re feeling bad right now… but I need you to know that we all still love and care about you…” 

It’s not like she expected a response, but it would have been nice.

She wondered why he was actin like this again, he started getting better once he was consistently taking his meds… 

“Steven.. did you take your meds today?” 

“I don’t think so…” 

“Steven…” 

“I don’t remember where I put my phone...” he adds.

Connie looks over and sees his phone on the floor next to his bed. 

“You didn’t hear the alarm go off this morning?” 

“No…” 

She checked the time, it was around five thirty. Way too late to take them. 

“Are they in Gravity Falls?” 

“Probably..” his density changed back to normal, and he slowly lifted up in the bed.

She slid down, so that she was laying next to Steven, and wrapped her arms around him. He started reverting back to his normal size, and the splotches decreased in darkness. Though they did not vanish entirely. His eyes went back to normal. As normal as his glowing pink form could be.

“If you want to sleep longer.. I’ll stay here with you… but you should stay at Gravity Falls tonight so you don’t forget again tomorrow…” she closed her eyes, and gave him a gentle squeeze. 

He didn’t go back to sleep, but he relaxed under Connie’s hold. The pink color did not fade away though. They just laid there silently, she listened to his heart beat, hearing it slowly go back to a normal pace.

After relaxing with Connie for ten minutes, his glow dissipated. Even though the glow vanished, it didn't mean he felt better.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Hey, we're back,” Mabel said as they got back to the house.

“Hey guys” Greg greeted them as they entered the room, “see anything cool while you were out?”

“Oh, loads of stuff!” Dipper said, a smile on his face. 

“Yeah Grunkle Ford even met someone else with six fingers” Mabel added

“Yes, it was very pleasant,” Ford said with a small smile. 

“We brought some pizza in case you and Steven want to eat?” Stan offered.

“Oh wow, thanks guys” 

Connie walked down the stairs, drawing everyone’s attention. 

“Hey Connie!” Mabel said happily, but the smile on her face saw Connie’s expression. 

“Hey guys, I’m gonna go get Lion… he was sleeping under the porch when I last saw him.” 

“Oh yeah, he’s still there” Mabel responded. 

“Great” 

She was only outside for a second before bringing Lion into the house, and running back upstairs. 

When she came back down stairs, she was slightly pulling Steven’s hand. His hair was messy and all over the place, and his eyes looked dead. Stan, who was the only person who didn’t know what happened, just thought Steven was hung over and extremely tired. 

“So um..you guys ready to go back home?” Steven asked, faking enthusiasm.

“As long as you’re coming with us” Mabel responded

Causing Steven to grow a small smile.

Steven decided to sit in the mane with Stan and Ford so they can see going through Lion’s portal this time. 

Now. 

Back to Gravity Falls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Given Steven's high dosage, and the medications he takes, missing a day can lead to a depressive episode. 
> 
> Hope you have a good day. 
> 
> Everything will work out, it'll be okay. 
> 
> (I won't promise that though)


	33. Time to Recover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven takes a breather, and gets to know some of the locals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> over 400 kudos? how? how did that happen? thank you guys!  
> I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing <3

Once they got home, everyone got off and out of Lion, then Steven and Lion went alone to his room. The pair of twins recounted their day in the new and amazing cities of Beach City and Little Homeworld. All while Steven laid down, and Lion curled up next to him, knowing he wasn’t feeling too well. 

Lion looked up at Steven, his eyes big and confused.

“I appreciate you staying Lion…” 

Lion rested his head back down on the bed, letting out a big yawn before closing his eyes. Steven just laid there, staring at the ceiling, until he eventually fell back asleep. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was about four in the morning once Steven woke up. It was still dark outside, but Steven thought he could try to make the most of that day. Make it better than yesterday. 

He got dressed in gym shorts and a plain T-shirt. Once he walked outside, he and Lion said their goodbyes and Lion left through a portal. Checking his phone, he noted that only fifteen minutes had passed, placing his phone in his pocket, along with his medications, which were placed in a small baggie that he safety pinned to the inside of his pocket. He didn’t want to be out and not have them, but he also didn’t know if he wanted to run back just to take them. He allowed himself to turn pink, and started his run. 

He ran past through the forest and to the lake. He looked around, it was still dark, hardly any time had passed. Looking around the lake he noticed there were a few boats, riddled across the water. It looked like there was no one in them, but Steven noticed little pointy hats moving around in the boats. Steven jumped into the air towards the Gnomes and hovered over the boat  
“Good morning” 

The little men panicked, and fell onto their butts. One of them responded

“Good morning?”  
He looked extremely confused by the floaty pink human thing. 

“Uh, can I join you?” he asked hesitantly. 

“Sure?” 

Steven slowly lowered himself on to the boat, sat down, and let his color fade away. 

“Are you a human?” one of the Gnomes asked, a bewildered expression on his face. 

“Kinda? Half human” Steven said with a shrug “I’m Steven” he said offering a single finger. 

“Allan” he said as he shook Steven's finger with his entire hand. “You uh...Fish?” 

“No, I don’t really eat things that has ever breathed” 

“Oh...uh..what are you doing here exactly? Don’t you humans have a curfew?” 

“If I’m not fully human, does it count?” he said with a half hearted chuckle, just trying not to sound so stiff “I’m just running, don’t worry I won’t stay long….I can leave now if you want, I just wanted to say hi since I saw...uh..Jason? At a bonfire, but I hadn’t really met you guys” 

“Oh I remember that bonfire, you know Mabel?” a different Gnome added

“Yeah, I’ve been living at the Mystery Shack with them,” 

“Oh nice nice...we tried kidnapping her when she was fourteen to marry us and become our queen…” He looked up at Steven’s face, his brows furrowed. “It’s okay now, of course, we talked things out after weirdmagedon” 

“Well that’s good...at least…” Steven frowned and looked out at the trees in the distance, he wondered  
‘What the hell is wrong with guys? Gnomes try kidnapping Mabel...Gideon tried basically killing Dipper because he wanted Mabel...and those guys at the arcade. Ugh’ . 

Mabel talked about Gideon when they were at the diner, but she did say they are on good terms now. She thinks he still likes her, but happy he respects her boundaries. Though part of Steven still wanted to pay him a visit, just to make sure.

“Well um...It was nice meeting you guys.” he said to the Gnomes on the boat.

“You too” 

“Well uh...bye?” Steven said, turning pink and jumping into the air to float back to the shore. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After that he decided to give himself a workout, and run up to the top of the mountain. It didn’t really do much, but it gave him a better view of the city. He hung his legs off the side of the cliff, and enjoyed the chilled breeze. 

Once he sees light to bloom into the sky, he checks his phone, only five in the morning, sun rise was in about twenty or so minutes. He felt a presence next to him, glow pink and flinched, and that caused him to lose his balance and almost fall off the cliff. He looked over and it was a Manotaur sitting next to him, looking concerned. 

“I didn’t mean to scare you” 

“No, it’s uh..fine,” his color fading to normal.

“Do you like watching the sunrise?” he asked awkwardly.

“Yeah, I guess? I’ve never actually watched the sunrise in Gravity Falls though” 

The manotaur hummed at the comment. The new presence made Steven feel like he should say something.

“Do..do you normally watch the sunrise?” he asked, sounding slightly embarrassed

“yeah...well...I try to. The other manotaurs think it’s not manly to watch the sunrise…when I was caught once, they teased me” 

A small laugh was squeezed out of Steven’s mouth, which caused the manotaur to look sad

“No no..it’s not about you..just, their toxic masculinity is ..oof wow. Manly Sh’manly, if it makes you happy, then they shouldn’t tease you about it” Steven said with a gentle smile. 

The manotaur looked shocked, like the idea of something like this being okay. However, he only felt comfortable to even mention it when he saw Steven turn pink, which apparently to the rest of the manotaurs, was not a manly color.

They sat in silence for the next half an hour. The colors changed from a navy blue to a purple, pink, and orange. Looking like individual brush strokes on the sky.  
The colors dusted over the city,  
the buildings, and the trees,  
and danced along the early morning summer breeze. 

Once the sun had risen, the manotaur spoke 

“Well uh...thanks for being nice to me” and he got up and started to leave  
“I hope we see each other again” 

“Me too” Steven said with a small smile, and the manotaur ran off. 

Steven sat there for a while longer, quietly watching as businesses opened up and the creatures went back to their homes. He watched the birds fly through the air, and something that looked like... if a hawk and an octopus had a baby. He cringed at the thought of the logistics of that.

He checked his phone and it was barely a few minutes after six in the morning. He heard a hiking group coming up the mountain, but he didn’t really realize how close they were until the person leading the hike spoke to Steven

“Kid, it’s not safe to-”

Startled by the sudden closeness of the voice, he fell off the cliff. 

He heard the person scream out to him, but he was already halfway down. Luckily, he slowly floated his way down.

Given that he didn’t really want a lot of people knowing he wasn’t fully human, he didn’t go back and reassure that guy. Hopefully he’ll catch him when he wasn’t with a group of people. Hoping he didn’t traumatize him. 

He walked through the forest, heading back to the Shack, trying to enjoy the walk in nature. It helped his mental health a bit to get out like this. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Once he reached the Shack, it was five minutes till he had to take his medications. He sat at the table quietly, until his alarm went off and he took his meds.

He was completely showered and drinking coffee by the time Ford had gotten up. 

“Good morning Steven,” Ford greets as he enters the room.

“Morning, Ford” 

“Are you..doing better today?” he asked, cautiously while pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“Yeah, I think so” he answered, a gentle smile on his face. 

“That’s nice to hear”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you doing good? I hope everyone's having a good day! So as of now, I'm working on this story and helping a friend of mine write the words and plot for another story.  
> (origionally my idea, but they read it and asked if they could take a different turn.) 
> 
> Thanks for reading! I hope you like it! <3


	34. Summerween

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's Summerween, you know what that means?   
> Watermelons, costumes, and candy

After Steven started doing things to help him feel better, Stan opened back up the shop, and Steven went back to being Mr. Mystery. Dipper had asked why he couldn’t be Mr. Mystery, and Stan pointed out that there weren’t any suits that fit him. Dipper agreed that that was a fair point. 

Several days pass, and the kids don’t mention anything to Steven about everything that happened. They don’t bring up the drunken game of ‘Never Have I Ever’ or anything that was discussed. They knew Steven wasn’t a bad guy, so they went back to how things were, everything fine. At least, they tried to get everything back the way it was, the first few days were awkward and full of small talk. Soon, the conversations started spewing back up, and they could laugh together again. However, bottling it up wasn’t going to help them either. 

Mabel hoped that today, they could liven the mood, hope that they could have a consistently good day, like the beginning of their grunkle’s birthday. 

Summerween is a great chance for a fun day. 

Mabel was still as enthusiastic about getting all dressed up, but since being twelve years old, Dipper enjoyed celebrating it. Though, at seventeen years old, most adults told them they were too old, but still gave them one candy.

Steven was very fascinated with the idea of Summerween, however he was still a bit confused on the whole halloween thing in general. However, after working for several days in a row, knowing he had the day off and the Shack was closed, AND finding out he can dress up, sounded exciting. He also has been taking his medication consistently, the morning of summerween, after taking his medications, he was very surprised that Mabel had managed to wake up everyone super early. Family was pouring into the living room.

“SO what are you guys dressing up as?” Mabel asked after gathering everyone up and getting them all to sit down.

“Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde” Stan and Ford said in Unison. 

“That’s Nerdy” Mabel responded, teasingly, but endearingly. 

The older pair of twins looked flabbergasted by such a remark. 

“Hey, I’ll have you know that Mr. Hyde is a really cool spooky guy, who was a huge asshole, and acted however he wanted” Stan said, defensively. Like it wasn't a bad thing.

“and...Doctor Jekyll?” Steven asked, confused by the whole thing.

“He was a very intelligent mad scientist, who figured out a way to change himself into a monster like man and act poorly with no repercussions.” He paused at the confused look on Steven’s face.  
“Doctor Jekyll turned into Mister Hyde, they are the same person.”

“Oh” he paused “I’m sure it’ll look cooler than the explanation” he said, harmlessly 

“AY OOOO” Mabel added for emphasis “it’s nerdy” 

“What?no-that’s not-” 

“Anyway, what’ll you be Soos?” she asked, changing the topic

Soos regretted agreeing to wake up this early, he was up all night with the baby, but he missed the Pines family. 

“I’m going to be the moon” He said with a sleepy smile, slightly stoic.

“The moon?” Stan asked confused

“Oh it totally makes sense dudes, so I’m the moon, Melody is going to be an astronaut, and Fran is going to be a little alien,” he said, with a little more enthusiasm. 

“Alien?” Dipper asked, cautiously, looking at Steven’s slight scrunched expression. 

Soos looked at Steven then over to Dipper, then back to Steven  
“Oh sorry dude, I meant like a little martian dude,” he said with his hands slightly up in a defensive position. 

“It’s okay” Steven said, reassuring Soos, the whole alien thing wasn’t something he took too harshly, he knows Soos had no ill intentions. 

“Okay, well..while we’re on Steven, what’ll you be?” Mabel asked, trying to progress the conversation. 

“Uhm… I’m not super sure. A scarecrow? I think I have enough stuff so that I could do that” 

“Do you have any makeup?” Mabel asked, excitedly

“Mmm no, I had some but it ran out.” 

“Okay Steven, I’m doing your makeup! aaaand, lastly

Waddles will be Han Solo, while Dipper and I are Luke and Leia,” She beamed

“Wha-how is that not nerdy!?” Stan asked, slightly befuddled, demanding an answer. 

“Aha It’s completely different, Star Wars is super mainstream and popular now, if you don’t like it, then you aren’t cool” She said, ending it by sticking her tongue out. 

Ford joked that he was wiping a tear from his eye  
“What a time to be alive” he beamed proudly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So Soos, you can go back home, we’re going to start getting everything ready here” Mabel said after finishing up her summerween plan talk. 

“Thanks dude” 

He decided to stay home with his family for the rest of the day, and pass out candy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They went to the store, but instead of Stan doing what he normally does and steal everything, Steven paid for it. 

“So guys, you carve watermelons?” he asked while picking a big one in his hand.

“Yeah, it’s super fun, and we get to eat all the insides too” Mabel responded

“Yeah, we end up making a bunch of popsicles out of the watermelon we can’t finish tonight” Dipper added.

“Cool, cool..” Steven responded. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Once they all had gotten home, Mabel remembered a story

“Our first summer here we were attacked by a giant creepy guy, made out of loser candy, and people who don’t celebrate would be punished… or something like that...I can’t remember” 

Steven looked concerned

“Soos ate him, so it’s fine” Dipper said, hoping to reassure Steven

Now Steven looked horrified. 

“But it’s okay, really, he was happy about being eaten” Dipper corrected

Steven’s expression just looked even more horrified. 

“Y’know what..just..it’s fine, don’t worry about it” Dipper gave up.

“Yeah, Steven, it’s all good now,” Mabel said, patting Steven’s shoulder. 

As Dipper and Mabel carved the first Jack-o-melon, with Mabel carving, and Dipper gutting the inside, Steven got an idea. 

“Hey can I borrow a seed?”

“Uh..sure, why?” 

“It’ll be cool,” he said, while grabbing a spoonful of watermelon and ate all but the seed. He just held them in his mouth. Mabel and Dipper looked at him, a little confused, and followed him outside. He spit the seed into his hand and then pushed it into the dirt. He glanced up at their expressions   
“No I swear, it’ll be cool” 

They go back into the house and get their costumes ready to put onto their bodies. After all their costumes were on, Mabel did some make up on Stan, and then Steven. 

“So how have you been?” she asked as she painted little stitch marks on Steven’s face.

“I’ve been okay, been trying to go on walks every morning, made a friend, so that’s nice” 

“But you go on walks like, really early?”

“Oh he’s a manotaur, but other than him, I did attract something your uncle calls ‘Moth Man’ while I was glowing, but as soon as I said something, he flew off” 

“Ha, he probably thought you were a lamp” she said with a chuckle.

“Well my skin is quiet radiant” he said acting conceited, then laughed at his own comment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mabel took pictures of everyone in their costumes, her uncles in the same picture, and Stan got a picture of Mabel and Dipper. 

“Oh! Everyone, let’s go outside” he said as he checked the time, it was about time. 

Everyone went outside and saw a tiny baby shaped watermelon, trying to detach itself from the vine. 

“Hey there little guy” Steven said as he detached him and picked him up like a baby. He presented the little Watermelon Steven like simba, Mabel was squeaking in excitement. 

“Can I hold the baby?” she asked as she reached out, Steven happily handed over the baby, Mabel immediately started talking in a higher octave   
“Who’s a beautiful baby, you are! Oh yes you are!” 

“So you made this from that seed like..” he checked the time “an hour ago?” 

“Yep” 

“Fascinating, and do they stay this size?” Ford said, pulling out his journal, that Steven didn’t even know was in his coat pocket. 

“Well when I was younger, they grew until they were my height at the time, but recently, since I’m like…” he put his hand on the top of his head and moved it to the side in a straight line “this tall, they grow to be my height, and are able to speak English,” 

“Are they sentient?” Ford asked while drawing a little doodle of the baby watermelon. 

“Yeah, they think and feel, and create bonds, such and such, the old ones actually formed a little village, or well villages, there’s a pacifist society and the others believe in fighting, they plant their own seeds and grow as a society” 

“Where do they live?” Dipper questioned

“Oh they have their own island near Beach City, or at least near-ish” 

“May I?” Stan asked Mabel, and she handed him the melon. 

“Hey kid, you wanna help me scare some kids tonight?” he asked with a big smile on his face, the melon Steeb just nods. 

“Yeah! Poindexter, drop the notebook, this little guy will be with us the rest of the day” and the older twins and the melon went into the house. Stan’s plan was to have his carved and lit Jack-o-melon on the porch, him and Ford pass out candy, and the baby melon sits there, pretending to be a melon, and then move, he thinks it’ll scare the kids. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They spent the night going door to door, getting candy from strangers, they’d pass an occasional creature using themselves as a costume. Hoping it’ll pass for the less informed. 

They passed a house that everyone knew gave out a lot of good candy to small kids, they all got one piece but then Steven got an idea.

“Hey guys, I’m going to go back to the house, but like this” he strunk himself down to a very young version of himself. He walked over in his baggy Summerween costume, and said 

“Twick or tweet” 

The lady sweetly responded  
“Awww” and handed Steven two whole handfuls of candy. Once she closed the door, Steven grew back to normal size, and regrouped with the twins. 

“Shit dude! That was so cool!” Dipper said, a smile plastered to his face

“You were so damn cute! AHH” Mabel added, enjoying the whole show

“Thanks guys” Steven said with a smile, his hand rubbing the back of his neck, he looked back at his game of Steven tag with the gems, feeling that they saw him as a kid, but these were friends “and check out thus score!” he opened his bag to them. It was practically full, filled with chocolate bars and the good stuff. 

They went straight home after that. Stan and Ford were still sitting on the porch with the melon, Ford was filling out his journal entry, and Stan was just telling it stories of his and Ford’s adventures. 

The kids feasted on their candy and watched Psycho, Steven was a little squeamish about it, but Dipper reassured him that the ‘blood’ was chocolate syrup. It helped. 

They all passed out on the floor, wrappers all over the ground. Hoping they don’t end up throwing up from how much candy they ate. Stan, Ford, and Melon Steeb soon came into the house,   
“Aww..” Stan said quietly as he pulled out Mabel’s camera.

*click*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Summerween everybody! what did you do to celebrate?   
> did you eat watermelon?  
> do absolutely nothing? Same
> 
> Hope you had a good day! Take care of yourself! 
> 
> Oh, i forgot last chapter, I commisioned @Twig._ on instagram another art piece, you can see it on my instagram   
> @mother_mortician_   
> It's my favorite boys <3 (I also love Dipper, but he ain't in the picture)


	35. Extinct

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two days after Summerween. Dipper takes Steven to ancient tunnels
> 
> They are empty, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Meds are running out, so frequency of updates may change temporarily.)

“So where exactly are you taking me?” 

Dipper was leading Steven through the woods, he refused to tell Steven the specifics. 

“You know I’m not going to tell you,” Dipper said with a sly smile. 

“I know” he slight with a fake huff “I was just hoping I could trick you” 

“By asking a direct question? How is that a trick?” 

Steven laughs “okay, maybe I didn’t think that through all the way” 

“No you did not,” Dipper says with a chuckle. 

They continued to hike through the forest, the heat of the morning sun gently touching their faces, but the chill of the wind still sent a shiver down their backs. He looked at all his surroundings, he could hear the sounds of cowls and the loud echoes of woodpeckers in the distance. At least, he was pretty sure they were cowls from the ‘m-hoo’ sound they made. When Dipper abruptly stopped, Steven just raised an eyebrow, and Dipper made a general arm gesture showing that they were there. 

“We’re here” 

Steven just looked at all of his surroundings, nothing seemed to stick out too much. His confusion went away once he said Dipper uncovered a wooden door covered in a pile of foliage on the forest floor. The hatch door looked as though it was put together by tree branches and vines. Almost ancient. 

“It’s a small abandoned moleman village, it has a series of tunnels that can be confusing, but Mabel and I mapped it out a few summers ago.” he explained

“Oh..how do you know it’s moleman?” Steven asked, staring into the dark abyss. 

“Mmm well there was some moleman skeletons, and a small cemetery” 

“Ah…” 

“Well are you ready?” Dipper asked, taking his backpack off, pulling two flash lights, and handing one to Steven. 

“Yeah, ready as I’ll ever be” 

“It’s bit of a drop, but I have this rope, so we can get down” 

Dipper attaches the rope to a tree then throws it down, and lowered himself into the engulfing darkness. Steven looked down and could hardly even see Dipper anymore, then finally he got a glimpse once the flashlight turned on. 

“You coming down?” Dipper shouted up. 

“Yeah” and Steven just dropped himself in, slightly scaring Dipper, but he relaxed once he saw Steven using his floating powers. Once Steven’s shoes touched the ground, he turned the flash light on.

“Oh right, I forgot you can do that” he cleared his throat and pointed his flashlight to the tunnel to the right. “So it’s this way to the big main part, and” moving the flash light to the left side “and this is the way to the cemetery” 

“Mmm let’s go to the main area..wait what do you mean by that?” 

“Like, it's a big part where it looked as though they grew plants, and there was about twenty little burrows that looked like homes” 

“Ah yes, then that.” 

Dipper led the way, heading down the right tunnel. Besides their flashlights there wasn’t any other light source, but after a few minutes their eyes had fully adjusted to the darkness. Despite their eyes adjusting, they could only see the walls next to them, but the darkness in front of them was frightening. Dipper kept walking, but Steven paused. He could have sworn he heard something, but once he tried focusing on trying to hear the sound again, he only heard Dipper walking.   
“Mm” 

They walked for about a half an hour, going from a straight line to continuous twists and turns. If Dipper wasn’t here, Steven would be completely lost. Despite Dipper’s constant reassurance that everything was fine, Steven could swear that he keeps hearing something that isn’t either one of them. 

“Steven, everything should be fine, Mabel and I came here our second summer, and we were pretty young, sure Ford was there, but nothing is going to hurt us, the Mole men are extinct” 

“Are you sure?” Steven asked, staying on high alert

“Yeah, all the evidence points to them being gone for around seventy years.” 

“Oh okay” 

Finally they got to the main part Dipper mentioned. It was a large domed room that had mounds with holes in them, the ground and walls around them were made of a firm dark dirt. It smelt like rotting tree roots, moss, and...animal poop? 

Steven got a weird feeling. Like he was entering someone’s house without asking. 

“Hmmm..that’s weird” Dipper mumbled, flipping to his notes on the molemen tunnels. 

“What?” Steven asked, a worried feeling starting to rise in him. 

“Well...last time we were here, I catalogued twenty burrows...but look” he pointed his flashlight towards the burrows “ there’s about forty burrows” 

“Forty?” Steven asked, getting ready to summon his shield.

“I mean..yeah, but we should be fine,” Dipper said, writing a new entry in his journal. He didn’t seem as panicked as Steven was. Dipper was pretty sure there were zero threats in the tunnels, he and Ford calculated that they had gone extinct, he suspected maybe a family of rodents or racoons figured out how to get in and made burrows. Though they were just as big as the other ones.. He wasn’t worried nevertheless, Ford gave him a gun that tranquilized threats. In a hypnotising manor. However, he was confident enough that he left it in his backpack. 

Steven could swear he hears scratching noises echoing off the walls.

Steven started turning around “I don’t know Dipper, I have a bad feeling about thi-” once he turned around he saw a giant Mole Man rushing towards. 

“Shit” and he reached and grabbed Dipper and formed a shield to protect them.

“Woah, what’s going o-OH MY GOD!” Dipper screamed as soon as the Mole Man pounded on the shield.

“Dipper, what do we do???” Steven asked, panic in his voice. With the Mole Man this close, it was a lot larger than he thought it could be… those tunnels were pretty big, what did he expect? 

“I..I don’t know..” he said flipping through his journal “Ford and I never saw one alive before...there was only so much we could uncover...I guess we only saw the babies’ skeletons before…something we could figure out was that they usually stay in labours, big groups of them…” He trailed off once he realized the little burrows ahead of them in the big area had heads peeking out of each one of them. Along with little baby heads that peeked out over those. They were quickly crawling out.

“We should run” 

“Good plan” Steven as he used the shield to push back to Mole Man attacking him, he didn’t know that there were more on their way. As the Mole Man stumbled back, Dipper screamed and caused Steven to look in his direction. 

They grabbed him and were pulling him away, dragging him away by his ankle. They started pulling him into a dark tunnel.

“Steven!” 

“Dipper!” While Steven’s back was turned to the Mole Man, it jumped onto his back, and slammed him to the ground. “Aggh” 

He looked back up and Dipper was gone, he quickly formed a bubble around himself and popped it, just to get it off of him. He turned pink and ran after Dipper. 

The tunnel Dipper was pulled into was a steep downward slant, so he had to slide down. Once he got to the bottom, he saw Dipper’s flashlight flickering on the floor. Aside from the beam of his flashlight and the ground beneath him glowing pink, it was pitch black all around him. He realized he dropped his flashlight when he was pounced on. He picked up Dipper’s flickering flashlight and hoped it wouldn’t die out. He tried listening for anything. 

After about a minute of nothing but scampering, he heard Dipper’s muffled voice. He ran straight to it, but he couldn’t see Dipper anywhere. His flashlight zoomed all over the area, but no sight of Dipper, but he caught the reflective eyes of a Mole Man.

Then he was charged by it, he used his shield and shoved it out of the way. It must have been sitting on Dipper, because he could see him on the floor after he shoved the creature. He grabbed Dipper’s wrist and pulled him to him, and formed a bubble around them. 

“Are you okay?” Steven asked as soon as he got Dipper. 

“Yeah..just my ankle…” 

Steven looked down at the ankle and it had a bite mark that was dripping with blood.

“Shit Dipper..I am so sorry” Steven cried out as he looked at the bite. 

“No Steven, It’s not your fault, I wanted to take you here-” the Mole people started pounding on the bubble.

“Mmm” Steven was looking for a possible emergency exit but they were surrounded. He tightened his grip on Dipper “hold on, it’s going to get a little rough” He gave the bubble a pointed top and jumped straight up. He hoped he didn’t hurt any Mole people on the way up. Before they knew it they were on the surface again. Steven popped the bubble. The bright light of the sun burning their eyes, the sound of scampering wasn’t echoing on the walls around them anymore and the sounds of birds filled the air. The smell of pine leaves and tree sap filling their lungs, pushing out the smells of dirt, rot, and feces. It was refreshing, until they realized they were being followed.

A few tried chasing them, snarling and squeaking at them while they crawled their way towards the boys. Steven didn’t want to wait around for them to get close, so he ran at full pink speed, and held Dipper in his arms like a baby. He didn’t stop running until they were past the doors of the Mystery Shack.

One they were in, he slammed the door and leaned against it, sliding down. He looked back at Dipper’s ankle and spit on his hand and tapped it on the wound. He would have licked his hand if his hands weren’t so dirty. It healed immediately and the blood vanished into a shimmer in the air.

The two grunkles ran into the room at the commotion, once they entered they saw the two kids sitting on the floor. Their clothes were covered in dirt and mud, Dipper’s pants were ripped up, and Steven’s jacket looked like it was ripped up from the back. Their hair was matted with mud, leaves, and straight long hairs that didn’t look like either of their own.

“What the hell happened?” Stan asked frantically. The smell of dirt and animal feces filling the room, causing his face to scrunch up. 

Dipper huffed a few times before answering  
“Great Uncle Ford, we were wrong…”

“What do you mean?” Ford asked, as he and his brother got closer to the boys and kneeled down. 

“The Mole Men...aren’t extinct” 

“What do you mean? What happened?” Ford asked, his brows scrunched

“Well I took Steven to their tunnels, and there were about twenty new burrows and they were everywhere..they were huge… the skeletons we studied were the babies…” Dipper said, while pulling out his journal. He started a new entry. 

“Well are you guys okay?” Stan asked, looked at their disheveled appearance. 

“Well uh..Dipper was bit… I healed him, but..I’m sorry I didn’t prevent it” Steven answered, feeling like a failure. 

“Steven, I already told you, it’s not your fault” 

“yeah..I know you said that but-” 

“You got us out, we’re home, it’s fine, we’re safe” Dipper reassured.

Soon, Dipper and Ford went off to talk about what he had learned about the Mole Men, and Stan stayed with Steven. 

“Don’t beat yourself up about it, kid” Stan said patting Steven’s shoulder

“Yeah..you’re right.” he responded as he looked down at his feet.

“You did a lot, and you gotta know that we really appreciate it”

“Thanks..” he responds looking up to Stan’s face, which changed from a gentle smile to an awkward one,

“So um...not to be rude or anything...but you should shower” Stan said with a slight scrunch to his nose. Steven responded with a slight smile and his brows to raise in the middle. He chuckled

“Yeah, I stink”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone is wondering, Mabel took melon boy to Soos's house so he can see it, melon boy is about 'classic Steven' size now. He's now wearing clothes because Mabel was scared Waddles may try eating him. 
> 
> ( I just finished Last of Us 2)


	36. I'm Sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a bit sad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone says the F word.  
> That's all I'm saying.  
> (Sorry the update took a while, my health wasn't too good)

A scream curdled the blood of everyone inside the mystery shack.

The Pines boys and Steven all ran outside, and gazed upon the gruesome sight that was waiting for them. 

The smell of watermelon filled the night air, but the sight of it all….watermelon and ripped up clothes all over the place was unsettling. 

Mabel was on her knees hugging Waddles inside the house right by the back door. 

“Oh my god…” Stan manges to whisper out as he falls to his knees. 

It was the same day Dipper and Steven had gone adventuring, Mabel was walking back with Waddles and Melon Steven right after sunset. 

The fact that Melon Steven was gone was proof enough of what happened. 

“What..happened?” Dipper asked as he bent down next to Mabel. 

“T-this giant...mole thing...came and scooped him up..and bit down on him and just shook his head around and he just...fell a-apart...all over the place… I left him out there.. But he told me to run into the house, but before I got in... it got him…I’m so sorry...” 

Steven thought silently, the newer plant Steven’s keep more of his personality in them, so saving Mabel while trying to fend off a monster alone, did sound like a thing he’d do... 

“Mabel...he...he’d be happy knowing you’re safe…” was all Steven could manage to say. 

“Is it still out there?” Ford asks, pulling one of his guns from a compartment by the door. 

Steven wondered if there were more guns hidden across. Yes. There were more guns hidden across the house. Most were some scientific guns that Ford made along with other weapons, but there were still ten that Stan had hidden across the house that were just normal guns. Y’know, just in case a maniac tries to sneak in a ladder. 

Not the safest place for Fran, that’s for sure. 

“Maybe...if not, then it’s close…” Mabel whispered out

“Stanley?” Ford offered. 

“Yeah, let’s go” Stan then opened a compartment in the floorboards and pulled out another gun. 

Steven felt weird with the amount of weapons hidden in the house. (that’s rich coming from the kid who was raised around violence, war, and people who can summon weapons on command)  
Both Grunkles then leave the house, leaving the kids alone in the house. 

Mabel is just on the floor hugging Waddles tightly, looking like she’s going to cry. For a moment, silence filled the room, but then the sound of screeching and yelling echoed in from outside. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, they held a small service in memory of Melon Boy. Mabel gave him the nickname of “Mello”.

Steven went out and bought clothes for everyone to wear for the service, even baby Fran got a tiny dress. Mabel insisted that everyone wore black.

Steven even managed to buy a small casket that was on sale after Summerween. 

“We are gathered here today..in memory of Mello… I may not have known him long...but I did know him his entire life...he was very kind...funny...and sweet… he died saving me… I’ll always remember him… he died too soon… I’ll never eat watermelon again.” 

One by one, all the Pines spoke on Mello's behalf, but Steven didn’t know what to say, or even how he felt. He was never used to his creations ending up with people caring so much about them. Then he started feeling like shit, because he never put that much love into his creations, not even this one, Stan and Mabel are the ones who spent the most time with him. His mind was spiraling until he heard his name being called

“Steven?” Stan asked, offering for him to say a few words, he sighed deeply and got up from his seat. 

“He was a good kid...I’m proud to have been his dad… I-I….I don’t know what else to say…” and he sat back down. Stan patted him on the back, he thought that Steven was just so sad, that he could not figure out what to say.

It was the exact opposite, Steven was the least sad person at the entire service, despite them inviting people who didn’t even know who Mello was. However, from the invitation Mabel made, it seemed like a child who was just a few days old was killed by a monster. Which is incredibly tragic… Mello’s death was tragic, but he was a watermelon. The feelings were hard to figure out for Steven...

Fiddleford even came and said a few words on the joy of children and appreciating the time you have with them because you don’t know how much time you’ll have. 

It only made Steven feel worse. 

~~~~~~~~~~

The reception was a lot better, people were talking and laughing again. 

“This kind of reminds me of the funeral that Grunkle Stan threw for Mabel’s wax Stan.” Dipper stated

“Huh?” Steven’s brow raised.

“Well Mabel made a life size wax figure of Grunkle Stan, some wax figures came to life and tried killing real Stan, but only killed the wax figure, Grunkle Stan held a funeral service and he actually cried and ran out” Dipper explained with a shrug

Steven stayed silent for a bit, he tried to think if that was something he remembered hearing about or if it was new knowledge.  
“Did that happen before Ford came back…?” Steven asked, slightly concerned

“Yeah, like, pretty early into our first summer here, before anything SUPER weird happened” 

“You don’t think he was sad because he finally had someone in front of him that looked like his brother...and they were killed… so it was like losing his brother all over again…?” Steven asked, his brows scrunched with concern. 

“Oh...I didn’t really..think about it like that...We just thought he was self absorbed” Dipper said, biting the inside of his cheek.

Ford was nearby when he heard the exchange, it didn’t sit right in his chest. He excused himself from his conversation with FIddleford, and went off to go look for Stan, he wanted to ask if he was okay, and ask about what he just overheard. He hoped it wasn’t a touchy subject. 

“Stanley?” he called out quietly once he reentered the small room.

“Hmm?” he was still sitting in a chair in front of the small casket. 

“Are you alright?” Ford asked as he sat down next to Stan. 

“yeah..I’m okay...I just don’t like funerals all that much” He answered quietly, his throat raw, he turned so Ford wasn’t able to see his face.

Silence settled between the two brothers, Ford wanted to ask further questions, but he couldn’t manage any words out of his mouth. 

“Do you know how many funerals I’ve been to…?” asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

“N-no… I don’t know…” 

“Not a lot…” he said with a small sad chuckle.

“Oh…” 

“When Pa found out I was dead...y’know what he said…? He said I probably deserved it...that I got what was coming to me...that I brought it onto myself… Ma was the one who called you… she said...‘you probably don’t care...but Stanley was killed…’” 

“Stanley….” Ford gently said as he placed a hand on Stan’s shoulder, causing Stan to look back at Ford, his eyes were welling with tears.

“Before I brought you back I...I threw a funeral for you….well..it wasn’t you..it was this...Wax figure” he made a small hand gesture, as to clarify. “I tried to bring you back for thirty years… but the whole time...I didn’t know if you were alive...or dead” Stan turned and looked back out the window, avoiding his brother’s sad expression. “It was hard...seeing someone who looked just like you… dead on the floor...headless…. It made me think..maybe you were dead…” Stan slouched over so he could rest his elbow on his knee, and placed his hand over his mouth. 

“I’m sorry…” 

“Don’t worry about it… I just..I thought I’d tell you… I don’t really know why I didn’t tell you before…” he let out a chuckle “probably because we haven’t really gone to a funeral together since you’ve been back…and probably because I just remembered that it happened at all...” 

The room grew quiet, with only the muffled sounds of conversations and occasional laughter that come through the closed door. Ford was glad Stan kept remembering more and more about himself, but most of the things weren’t happy memories. Most things he remembered caused Stan to break down. 

“Stanley...No matter how upset I was...if I had gotten that call...it would have broken me… I hope you know that…” Ford said while gently rubbing a circle on Stan’s back.

“I know that now..but at the time...I….I didn’t know…” He said while straightening his back, and he finally turned to Ford, his eyes full of tears and finally trickling down his cheek, his mouth opened and closed a few times before he managed to  
“But It hurt so fucking much…” and with that, he couldn’t hold it in anymore, and quickly covered his face and cried. Ford wrapped his arms around his brother and pulled him in, he knew he was forgiven, and that this was a new memory, but he knew that no matter how much time passed... memory wiped or not, it all still felt so raw to Stan. 

“I’m so sorry Stanley… I love you so much…” 

Finally after some time, Stan mumbled out

“Thanks Stanford… I love you too…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive me ._.


	37. 618 Memory LN. 061545 Dream, SNLY.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven is somewhere else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's sad again, my bad.

Steven was somewhere else. Was this a dream? Was it HIS dream? Someone else’s? Is it a memory? A mix? It was complicated. His surroundings reminded him of a road he drove on his journeys… but he didn’t know where he was.

He heard muffled yelling. 

Steven looked around, he wasn’t sure if this was a dream anymore. Was it a dream? Nothing really popped out that none of this was real…it felt so real.

The yelling seemed to be growing in panic and fear, so Steven decided to help. If this wasn’t a dream, and he did nothing, then something bad could happen.

When he ran to the muffled screams, he saw a car that looked familiar, completely wrecked and on fire. His first response was to run to the driver's seat, but no one was there, no one was in the car at all...at least he thought. Once he was close, the yelling sounded louder, but there was no one in the car. Until he heard the sound again. It was the trunk. When he ripped the trunk open, there was a man with brown hair, coughing into his arm. His face covered.

Steven pulled the man out and dashed far from the car, just in case the car was going to explode, the smell of gasoline, fire, burnt paint, and melting metal and upholstery filling the air. An incredibly foul smell.

The man’s face was still covered when Steven placed him onto the ground, he was coughing and trying to get a catch of fresh air. 

“Are you okay?” Steven asked, kneeling down next to the stranger. Stranger or not, that is not a good situation to pull someone out of. The smell of smoke still lingering on the man, with slightly melted trunk upholstery stuck to their clothes.

Steven was startled when the man looked up at him, he was younger than what he was used to… like forty years younger. Give or take.

“Stanley?” Steven asked, very confused. He didn’t mean to call him ‘Stanley’, but it kind of slipped out that way. 

He rubbed his eyes, and blinked a few too many times before looking at him,  
“Steven?...wh-what are you doing here?” 

“Is...is this a dream? Shit, Stan, I’m sorry I didn’t mean t-” 

“Stop.” He says as he puts a hand up. “It’s fine…” he pinched the bridge of his nose and looked around. He looked like he was trying to find his bearings, he seemed to have found them when he saw the black smoke from his car over the small hill. 

“I hate this dream…” he says, still looking at this smoke.

“You’ve had it before..?” Steven asked, concern filling up his voice.

“Yeah kid...it’s ah….uhm...a memory…” 

“Oh…” this was a bad memory, very bad… it stung in Steven’s chest to think of Stan in a situation like this.

“In real life..I did get out of the trunk by myself...everyone thought I had died in the crash though..”  
He shifts his weight a bit, and decides to sit down on the small hill, and he tapped the ground next to him. Steven joined him on the slightly crunchy grass on the ground. 

“Are you...okay?” 

“I’d like to think so, but..I don’t know… it’s good I’m remembering...but sometimes I remember things like….” Suddenly the surroundings change, and Stan is no longer sitting next to Steven, but he’s in front of him, on the floor in front of a pawn shop. Now the same age that Steven is now.

“You ignoramus! Your brother was gonna be our ticket out of this dump! All you do is lie, and cheat, and ride on your brother's coattails. Well this time you’ve cost our family potential millions! And until you make us a fortune, you’re not welcome in this household.” and the man threw a duffle bag at Stanley. Steven wished he was more of a violent type, he would have punched that man...was it...Stan’s dad? 

Steven jumped into the car with him as he drove off. 

“I hate this…” Stan mumbled, and he looked over at Steven. Steven was taken aback by Stanley’s young age, the appearance of pubescent pimples on his chin and lack of wrinkles. 

“I’m sorry…” 

“It’s not your fault… hell, I know you’ve probably dealt with much worse before you even became seventeen…” Stan chuckled sadly to himself. 

“Yeah but...that doesn’t mean what you went through is in any way less painful”, and he offered a reassuring pat on Stan’s shoulder.

He let out a small sigh. Silence settled over the two teenagers.

“So uhm….why did you apologize?” Stan asked without looking away from the road. Why is he worried about driving safely, doesn’t he know this is a dream?

“Because you don’t deserve this” Steven said, trying to reason.

“No no, I mean, when you saved me from the fire, why did you apologize.” he clarified firmly. 

“Oh… because this is a dream...and I’m invading it…” Steven said shyly, looking out the window. 

Stan raised a brow.  
“So you can go into people’s minds?” 

There was silence, leading to Stan knowing the answer, but Steven responded.  
“Y-yeah…”

“So what, are you like Bill or something?” 

Steven tensed at the question, the trees started looking like blurs out the window...how fast were they going?

“Not like in a...a bad way.” Stan clarified “I mean like...skills…”

“Yeah...similar skills” Steven responded softly. 

Where were they going? He felt like they’ve been going very fast and not making any headway. 

“Stan…” Steven started, finally turning back to him, but he suddenly wasn’t a teenager anymore. His hair was a mullet and he was wearing a puffy snow jacket. Snow? He looked back out, and there was now snow everywhere. 

“Yeah, kid?” 

“Do you have dreams like this often?”  
Stan didn’t respond  
“dreams that are mixtures of memories…?” Steven decided to add.

“Sorta” his new guffer appearance made Steven remember a hazy memory of Ford’s, but he wasn’t sure. 

“Have you..gotten help?” Steven asked gently, hoping to not upset him.

“Yeah...a bit...I talk to Ford when I remember something...but usually when I tell him new things he seems hurt by them...then he apologizes..but I don’t know. I forgave him a long time ago, but I can’t just...forget that it hurt.”

“Yeah...but have you tried talking to like..a real therapist about it...someone who’s not Ford? An unbiased opinion?” 

“I have...didn’ really open up that much, we’d talk for a bit then we’d get to the point where I don’t want to talk anymore…I don’t really like opening up to Strangers”

“Oh…well...is there anything you haven’t told Ford... that you should…?” 

“Probably” He tried shrugging off the question.

Steven knew that pushing someone into a corner to talk isn’t the best tactic, but in the end..it did work..right?

“Like what?”

Stan looked at Steven from the side of his eye, he looked like he was debating something. Part of him questioned if this was actually Steven, or just a dream, because it’s not like it’s the first time he had a dream where a family member went with him into bad memories, but that was more like Ford, Mabel, Dipper, or Soos, but none of them tried to make him talk. He thought, if it’s Steven then...he’d already seen a lot...if it’s not Steven, what is there to lose from opening up?

“Well...Ford told me that you tried uh…” He paused, this was not the best way to start what he wanted to say “breakin your gem”

Steven’s eyes widened, ‘why would Ford tell him that??’

“well...I tried doing the same..in a way.” 

Steven’s brows scrunched. ‘What.’

“ I was alone...it was my birthday...I had no one… no one cared...I was banned from like..a crap ton of states...locked up... I thought it was the best option, didn’t have anything else going for me”

“Stan…” 

“But hey! It didn’t work out, the warden found me, they took me to the medical wing, they patched me up… I mean… it’s not like I didn’t try again, but they kept watch on me… but eventually I found out he only fought to keep me alive because he was dirty, and wanted me to be able to pay someone back so he can get a cut” 

For only half a second, Steven thought he was using ‘warden’ figuratively like his dad did, but that thought quickly left. Stan was actually in prison. A literal warden. 

“So I guess no one really did care… genuinely.” Stan said with a slight huff. 

“I’m sure if someone had known.. they would have cared enough to stop you…”

“But even when people care, they can’t always stop you from doing it… but they can try to fix you” 

Steven couldn’t argue with that.. considering that they found him after what he had already done.. 

“But… I think you have a point….I .. I should probably tell Ford. Or uh…” he paused and pulled over the car next to a cabin. 

‘The Murder Hut? That’s comforting… it kind of looks like.. the mystery shack. Oh. It is’

Steven felt kind of stupid for not recognizing it immediately, considering he’s been working and living there for quite some time. 

He also realized that Stan hasn’t once asked for his rent. 

“See a therapist...you...you think it helps?” Stan asked. 

“Immensely” Steven responded, tightening one side of his mouth in an attempt to offer a smile. 

“Mmm….fine… but you probably have to remind me when I wake up...I’ll probably forget.” He said with a chuckle. 

“Unless this really is a dream, and you’re a figment of my imagination...then I’ll try my best to remember” 

“I’ll remind you…” 

“Thanks kid…” 

~~~~

When Steven woke up, he felt exhausted, like he didn’t get any sleep at all, but part of him was full of energy, glad to have helped Stan. Getting a better understanding. He soon went to the kitchen, took his meds, then shut off his alarm.

He wondered if Stan would remember at all, he hoped he would. 

When Ford came into the kitchen and greeted him, he felt a sting of betrayal. Was it betrayal? It’s not like he made him promise not to say anything. Did he? He couldn’t remember. 

He wasn’t mad or upset, but he did know he wasn’t super okay with it. 

“Ford...um...why did you tell Stan about what I did?” he didn’t ask it harshly, but Ford still tensed at the question. 

“Sorry… I was worried about you...and I didn’t really think about it until it was already out of my mouth.” for someone who’s a genus, he often does stupid things. Not that caring about Steven was stupid, but he didn’t think about the effect it’d have to tell someone about that. 

“I’m not upset...just...wanted to know.” Steven said, sticking a finger into a ringlet in his hair. He probably should get a haircut... 

Ford bit the inside of his cheek before repeating “sorry…” 

“It’s fine...just...do me a favor?” Steven asked, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“What” 

“Stan wants to talk to you...could you just sit and listen...give him support?” Steven said, before bringing his coffee up to his mouth. 

“Yeah, I can do that”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soon everything will be okay again. 
> 
> and a BIG "Screw you" to Filbrick Pines.
> 
> Sorry my posting has been inconsistent, I’ve been working on other projects and helping out with editing other stories. My motivation was nonexistent so I didn’t do much writing. But once I get in the flow I can’t stop, I hope you enjoy it <3


	38. When One Door Opens...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stan opens up the rest of the way to let his twin brother in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Trigger Warning, since this follows the previous chapter it will have brief talk of attempted suicide. 
> 
> (Hey Everyone, sorry :c I haven't posted much in this story, recently got off of antidepressants so my motivation has been ass, however I'm finally getting back into my rhythm so hopefully you guys enjoy this short chapter)

Stan spent four hours trying to open up to Ford. 

He continuously tried to get out of it, make excuses to leave, and even locked himself in the bathroom so he didn’t have to get out and talk. Steven threatened to pull the door out from its hinges if he was just in there to avoid talking. Stan didn’t doubt the threat, he knew Steven would and could do that. 

Stan stubbornly agreed to get out of the bath room, but it took more convincing to get him to talk. He would sit silently with his brother, while Ford sat patiently waiting. He knew it was important, he could see the internal struggle it was for Stan to open up about it. He assumed Stanley had told him everything, but with Stan’s inability to speak, his constant fidgeting, and continuous attempts to get out of it, maybe this was worse than anything else his brother had told him. 

Stan DID want to tell Ford, but every time the words were about to exit his mouth to tell him, he was scared his brother would think less of him. He was worried Ford would pity him or a basket case. 

Finally, Stan got the courage and asked Ford to come to his room with him. He thought it would be easier to start talking about it after showing him some medical evaluation tests he got from the prison. It described his health and incidents that affected his well being such as violence from others or himself, and his attempt on his own life. 

After he finally opened up, Ford was overwhelmed with all of the new information. He knew things had been hard for Stan, but he couldn’t have imagined Stan doing something like that. He tried doing that on their birthday… for that birthday Ford was invited out, and celebrated, without a single regard how Stan was doing. At the time he assumed his brother would be out drinking and celebrating, not trying to end his life in a prison cell. 

They spent the rest of the week spending time together, and off on brotherly adventures. Ford wanted to do something that he hoped would cheer up Stan. With the slight suggestion of Vegas, Stanley was on board. Despite hating the idea of Vegas while growing up, Ford thought vegas was tame compared to Lottocron Nine. His skills at the tables surprised Stan completely, considering he won his infinity die there, he was very skilled with cards and gambling. They won a lot of money, but ultimately lost most of it after Stan got himself arrested. 

~~~

When they returned, the teens looked like they were excited for something. 

While they were gone, Bismuth and Peridot had come and set up a warp pad on Scuttlebutt Island. They didn’t even tell Steven until it was set up.

He asked how they got there and Peridot and Bismuth just laughed. Helpful. They didn’t do it to be pushy or invade his privacy, but as a ‘just in case you want to come home, you can’.

Stan opened up, so Steven thought it was time he let them in, and with this newfound convenience, Steven set up some plans. 

“What’s with the faces?” Stan asked, starting to feel a bit uncomfortable with them smiling at him like that. 

“Oh nothing, Grunkle Stan” Mabel said with her smile widening. Almost too wide. A concerning amount of teeth were showing. 

Ford’s eyes squinted at his grand niece “did you kids take drugs?” 

“Nope” Dipper responded for his twin “nothing like that” 

“You guys want to go somewhere cool?” Steven asked, his smile bright, his eyes starry. Despite having bad memories associated with where he wanted to take them, he knows they would enjoy going there and seeing them all happy together is always a joy. They already met most of his family, why not the rest? Well there were many reasons,actually…

“Cool like where?” Stan asked, with a raised brow. 

“Like Homeworld.” Dipper said excitedly. 

“Wh-what really?” Ford was temporarily filled with excitement before memories flowed through his mind “are you sure Steven?” Ford asked with a brow raised. 

“Yeah, I think it’ll be okay,” Steven said with a slightly forced smile. He wasn’t lying, he did think it will be okay, but he hoped White didn’t say anything stupid. 

~~~~

After everything was together and ready to go, they got onto the Stan O’ War II, and made their way to Skuttlebutt Island. They drove it in from the shoreline into the lake doc, since Stan and Ford didn’t really trust people. Of course, they didn’t trust the people and creatures of Gravity Falls a lot, it was more than complete strangers.

Seeing new gem tech in a location they had known for many years displaced the Pines family, but they were sure it was easier than having to call someone in hopes they’re with Lion. Steven was okay with this...right? It was his idea after all but… being this close to the warp pad, his friends excited...it’s not like he could back out. He could but...they’d probably be bummed out. 

He has only seen Spinel or the Diamonds in person a handful of times since everything happened, he has occasionally talked to them through a diamond communicator that was gifted to him. However, lately he just keeps that on his dresser to look nice, since he made them promise not to call. Him being half human and needing sleep really sold it for them. 

Steven took a step onto the warp pad, with the Pines soon joining him 

“So, is everyone ready?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been working on something cool with someone cool, so keep your eyes open for that. If you're interested, that is. 
> 
> Hopefully you guys liked it, and are excited for next chapter!  
> Have a good rest of your day!


	39. Trying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Homeworld visit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gosh guys, I'm sorry for being so absent with this story, I've been busy with life and other projects. 
> 
> speaking of other projects, I wrote a story with the wonderful " OolongTeacup ". 
> 
> It's a fun cross over between this story and their story, which is Undertale AU related.  
> (so if you like the idea of a reformed horrortale sans, yay)   
> links for those in the notes of "Journal Entry 66"   
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/25516630/chapters/61907446 
> 
> (when I say fun, I mean fun for me, it's rated R)

“Are you sure everything is alright?” 

Ford asked while they all beamed through the warp, despite being excited to visit the home of Gems, he was worried how Steven was holding up with coming to Homeworld. He knew Steven had spent a lot of time in homeworld, and even had therapy sessions with the diamonds since everything happened, but he couldn’t help but feel concerned. Maybe he was just overthinking it…

“Yeah, I’m fine” Steven responded with a toothless smile on his face. 

Suddenly the warp beam around them vanished and they were somewhere new. It was much brighter than they had anticipated. There were banisters across the walkway of a Blue gem named Zircon encouraging gems to be accepting of cross gem fusions. Steven explained that that gem was his lawyer when he was on trail a few years back, and that Steven had congratulated her when she became the elected official for Homeworld. 

“So this is the capital” Steven said as he gestured to a large building that looked similar to a torso, head, and spiky hair. It was surrounded by blue, yellow, and pink flags that had gem glyph written on them. “We can go in or walk around for a bit, or you can split up and do multiple things. There’s a tour available in the Head capital, my aunts are helping gems today, so I know they’re there, and there is a training arena out that way” Steven said, pointing out to his left. “There is also an art gallery down in the town” he said gesturing to the right.

“You think we could meet your aunts first?” Mabel asked curiously.

“Uh..y-yeah we can do that” Steven said with forced enthusiasm as he led the way to the Head Capital. “Yep yep yep…” he said quietly to himself, hoping to hype himself up. 

As they walked closer, the sheer colossal size of the building was overwhelming. The sounds of awe escaping the mouths of the Pines before they entered the doors was enough to help Steven get through this. There was a group of Gems going off into a tour as they walked in. 

“Oh! Steven Universe, what a surprise to see you here, would you like your guests to go through the tour?” a reformed Amethyst asked him as they entered. 

“I was actually on my way to see Yellow, Blue, and White.” Steven said, a polite smile on his face as he waved a ‘don’t worry about it’ gesture. “But they might want a tour on the way back?” he said, turning around trying to read the group, however, they were all just looking at the vastness of the room. “Yeah, probably that, thank you Amethyst” who nodded and went on their way. 

Steven led the group down a tall and spacious corridor, and soon before reaching the yellows room, Steven got a tap on the shoulder. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Stan asked “I know you told Ford that you’re fine, but I just want you to know that we can bail and turn around right now” 

“I know, but they’re family, and I haven’t seen them in a while” Steven responded with a slight shrug. 

“I know they’re family, but like...there’s nothing wrong with not talking to toxic family members, I mean my dad kicked me out at seventeen, and I never talked to him again after that. I only hardly know what they did to you, but you have a justified reason to never speak to them again.” 

Steven hummed thoughtfully for a moment “I understand that… but we have talked a lot, and she knows that things can’t be as good as she’d like, but I can’t just...not talk to her.” Steven felt much better with Yellow and Blue than he did with White. Between ages fourteen and sixteen, he spent a lot of his time liberating colonies and gems, and he bonded more with Blue and Yellow over the two years. 

“Okay, kid” Stan said, a hesitant look in his eyes, but he decided to stop the topic since they had reached a large door. 

“So this is Yellow’s room, just a warning she is very tall” Steven said before pushing the door open, the Pines family filtering into the room before the door closed. 

“Hey Yellow!” Steven called out cheerfully. 

She turned around, and placed the newly adjusted gem down onto the ground, and as she ran off Yellow stood up. “Steven! It’s so nice to see you!” she reached a hand down and lifted him up against her cheek, in an attempt to hug him, then placed him back down. “And you’ve brought friends?” 

“Yeah this is Stan, Ford, Dipper, and Mabel” he said as he gestured to each respective person. 

She knelt down and held a finger out to each of them, shaking their hands. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all” She said quietly, hoping to avoid hurting their ears. 

“You’re a very big lady” Mabel said, a confused smile on her face. 

“Yes I am” She said with a small giggle. 

“May I take a photo of you?” Ford asked politely, Dipper standing giddy next to him. 

“Why of course” she said, smiling for the camera. 

“If you want I can take a picture of all of you together?” a new voice asked from behind the group. Everyone turned around to see a small pink gem, whose actual gem was shaped like an upside down heart. 

“Oh! Hi Spinel!” Steven said, sounding surprised. 

“Hi Steven!” She said stretching her arms out to Steven for a hug, her lower body following once her arms were around him. “How’s everything going for you?” she asked once she let go of her brief hug. 

“It’s going” Steven said with a smile, his hand scratching at the back of his neck “you don’t mind taking the picture?”

“Of course not! I mean, I only recently found out what a camera was from Pearl, but yeah, I just focus and push a button right?” She said, shifting her fingers into a camera shape. 

“Yeah, basically” Steven said, handing Spinel the camera “oh everyone, this is Spinel” he stated, gesturing to Spinel “Spinel this is the Pines family, Ford, Stan, Mabel, and Dipper.” He then gestured to them for Spinel. 

~~~~~~

After taking the photo together, Dipper and Ford asked Yellow a plethora of questions. Steven sat on the side of the room with Stan as Mabel and Spinel talked. Mabel seemed to really like Spinel, Steven wondered if Mabel would still like her if he told her that Spinel attacked him and tried to kill the Earth… but he couldn’t do that, he knows she’s changed. He knows she has done a lot to help gems, that she has started group therapy meetings to help gems with violent tendencies and how to feel better. 

“Hey Steven, sure you’re fine, but when we get back to the shack you want an ice cream sundae? Or go to Greasy's Diner?” 

“I’m fine without that Stan” Steven said with a raised brow, easily telling how concerned he was for Steven. “I mean if that’s something you want, then I can’t argue with that” Steven said with a slight huff of a laugh. 

“Yes. I think I’ll want to enjoy getting food after this, since I’m sure there is no food here?” Stan said with a teasing smile, trying to play off of Steven’s joking behavior. However, both him and Ford were concerned for Steven. 

“No there’s no food here” Steven said with a tired laugh. Across the room, they can see Mabel had pulled out her Polaroid camera, took a photo with Spinel, and now excitedly talking to Spinel how the picture will soon develop.

“Oooo wow” Spinel said in awe, holding the photo in her hands. 

“I know right, sometimes I shake it, maybe it makes a difference, I’m not super sure though” Mabel said, a giggle taking over her words at the end. 

“Y’don’t say?” Spinel said, squinting her eyes and blipping out her tongue before vigorously shaking the photograph, causing Mabel to burst out in laughter. 

~~~~~~

Spinel stuck with Mabel as they headed over to Blue’s room. Steven didn’t have a problem with it, but Ford kept an eye on her, just in case something happened. However, despite appearing relaxed in his new environment, Stanford Pines was nowhere close to relaxed in Homeworld. He did, in fact, enjoy that he was on an alien planet and that so far, nothing bad has happened. 

“So Steven! Who’s next?” Dipper asked, vigorously clicking the button of his pen. 

“Oh um...Blue” Steven said, slightly letting out a sigh of relief. He knew that if he didn’t see White she’ll feel left out and probably go to Earth to see him. However he was thankful that he had given himself more time to prepare to see her. 

“What is she like?” Dipper asked excited curiosity. 

“She’s nice,” Steven responded, a toothless smile on his face as he looked at Dipper. “She’s tall like Yellow, but her room is like… pure happiness” 

“Like metaphorically?” 

“Uh… sure” Steven wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but he’s hoping that agreeing won’t make him look bad. He knew that Dipper wouldn’t say anything bad to him or tease him about what he doesn’t know, but he still couldn’t get himself to say it. 

“Cool!” 

“Hey Steven, look at us!” Mabel shouted from behind the group. When Steven turned around he saw Spinel’s legs stretched out, and holding Mabel very high up. As though Spinel was stilts. Sure, Mabel looked happy and was enjoying this, but Steven’s skin immediately started to glow pink. Dipper also looked startled, but of course, he can’t exactly change color. Except for the color in his face slightly fading away.

“H-hey, Spinel, could you put her down please?” Steven said, nervous for Mabel, over the weeks he has spent with the Pines, he has grown to care and love them like they are family. 

“Oh c’mon Steven, it’s fiiine,” Mabel said, trying to reassure him. Despite trusting Mabel, he didn’t trust Spinel all that much...she could drop Mabel, she’s human, she would get severely hurt from that height.

“Please…” Steven said, practically in a whisper, clenching his fists… suddenly Mabel was surrounded by a pink light. Her body felt lighter, like gravity meant nothing. 

“Okay okay...I’ll put her down,” Spinel said, shrinking her legs down and placing Mabel onto the ground. When she tried taking a step again, she slightly floated into the air. Dipper, Ford, and Stan all looked shocked, turned their attention to Steven, who shook out his arms causing his and Mabel’s color to fade away. 

“What was that?” Ford asked as he approached Steven. 

“I uh...I’m not sure...I’ve only done that once...when I fused with my dad” Steven said, slightly confused, his brows furrowing as he thought. 

“Did you guys still want to see Blue?” Spinel hesitantly asked. 

“Yeah yeah, we can still do that” Steven responded then turned to Spinel “sorry for uh...freaking out.” 

“Don’t worry about it” Spinel said, her arms twisting up as she shooed away his worry “I completely understand, Steven.” 

“Okay…”

They all walked in silence for a while, with the occasional whisper between Spinel and Mabel, before they got to Blue’s door. The Stans kept a close eye on Steven as he pushed the large door open, chilled air wafting out of the room. The room was full of clouds, the group stood silently watching as they drifted across the room.

“Bluuuuee” Spinel shouted out sing songy “Steven’s here!” 

Clouds move out of the way, revealing a giant blue woman, with long hair that attaches under her large gem.

“Steven! My little one, how are you feeling today?” 

“I’ve been… alright? Um...everyone, this is Blue” he then continued with introducing each of the Pines family to Blue. 

“Would you all like to feel nice and relaxed?” She asked, looking down at the group of visitors, and bringing six little clouds down to the group. 

Stan and Ford curiously looked at Steven, silently wondering if it’s a good idea, and all Steven was able to do was slightly shrug “it’s fine”. Even getting on a cloud, himself. 

The six floated up on the clouds, all of their worries washing away as they were filled with pure bliss. Steven knew he needed something to help him with White, he needed to be in a good mood. 

The problem wasn’t with White. Entirely. The problem was introducing White to his friends. He isn’t really sure how to talk to her. Part of him is still mad about the damage she has done to him, to her people, and other planets. While another part of him wanted to apologize profusely for thinking of shattering her. However, his attempt at shattering her, only succeeded in hurting himself. 

In that moment, it was hard for any of them to think of anything that actually bothered them. 

Mabel felt the carelessness that reminded her of when she was doped up on ‘Smile Dip’, but without the sickness to her stomach and headache. Losing Waddles and Causing Weirdmagedon wasn’t even close to her thoughts, it was like it never happened. 

Dipper felt like all of his worries meant nothing… those bullies from highschool? Stuttering in his valedictorian speech? Transphobia? Molemen? Bill? Nope. none of that mattered right now.

Stan and Ford had similar happy memories that came up with their feelings. Both remembered the joy of their time together as children and their adventures together over the years on the Stan O War. 

However, for Stan, the fresh memory of baby Franny being born and holding her, made him beyond happy. It was similar to how he felt when he met Dipper and Mabel for the first time as babies. 

Lastly Steven… He accepted all the feelings. He is fully capable of rejecting it, pushing the feelings away, but today… he needed it. At least, in some sense he did. He wasn’t feeling too bad, but the stress of seeing White was just a bit more than he wanted.

~~~~ 

They stayed with Blue the longest, but that is primarily because Steven, Stan, and Mabel all fell asleep. Ford and Dipper sat down on their clouds, discussing the intricacies of her powers. Ford also questioned her abilities to fill those around her with pain and force them to cry. He wasn’t rude about it, but he knew she wouldn’t bring it up herself. He asked yellow a similar question.

She didn’t get mad or question how Ford could know such a thing, she just answered the question. The family therapist that Steven practically forced them all to see stated that facing the truth of one's past actions is better than denying that it had happened. Despite the Diamonds being able to learn that, Steven was still having difficulty with accepting his past. The anxiety that came alone with his memories was just too much for him to take sometimes. 

About an hour of Blue Diamond and other gems who were floating around questions, they had decided they should keep going. However, Ford asked for them to get a move on things from outside the room. The slumbering kids were slightly surprised by Ford’s distance, but only suspected that he left the room moments before them. 

“So um...White next?” Steven asked, after he said he good byes and caught up with Ford and the rest of the Pines family. Leaving Spinel with Blue.

“Actually, y’know I was thinking, it’s close to lunch time, right? We can just go back home, get some grub?” Ford asked, placinging his journal in his coat, and smiling gently to Steven and his family. 

“Ooo yeah,” Mabel smiled back brightly. 

“Please no actual grubs though…” Dipper pleaded quietly, and with Steven's scrunched expression he added “It felt like they were wiggling as they slid down my throat”. Steven slightly gagged at the thought. 

“No, no real grubs” Ford said, a small huff of a laugh came out along with a wide smile “no, maybe like… the Diner?” Ford questioned, raising his brow at his brother. 

They were in cahoots. 

“Yeah! The diner sounds fantastic, right kiddos?” Stan said, a bright smile on his face as he pulled all three teens in for a brief but tight hug. His expression expectant, causing all three teens to just nod in agreement. 

Despite Steven’s questions for certainty that they, in fact, did not want to explore more of homeworld, they all were enthusiastic about going home and eating. The twins were happy that they were being taken out to eat, but the Stans were just trying to be helpful to Steven. Steven would have been perfectly fine, but they have their reasons. 

~~~~~

After Saving the city from Weirdmagedon, they actually were given their own booth, with a little metal plaque and everything. Steven sat closest to the window, sitting next to Dipper, who sat next to Ford. While Mabel sat directly across from him with Stan next to her. 

A young waitress walked up to their table, her brownish yellow hair was in a high ponytail with long bangs clipped to the side. Her uniform was just like the other waitresses, except her name tag was surrounded in glitter and the apron around her waist was bedazzled. With small words that said ‘Mabel approved’. Huh. 

Her arrival caused Dipper to slightly shrink down in his chair. 

“Hey guys, how are you all doing?” She said with a bright smile, her dark blue eyes beaming happily at the family. 

Ford was the first to respond,  
“Very pleasant”

Then Stan, “fantastic” a mischievous smile on his face, looking directly across him to his grand nephew. 

“Awesome” Mabel smiled brightly, her eyes also glancing at her twin. 

“I’m doing okay” Steven with a lopsided smile and a slight shrug. Slightly confused on why everyone was looking at Dipper. 

Lastly Dipper, who managed to wave and mumble out a quiet “okay”.

Wow.

She smiled at the group when she suddenly did a double take, her eyes darting to Steven “oh, I don’t believe we’ve met, I’m Pacifica” She smiled brightly to him, getting a bright smile in response. 

“I’m Steven” he said, offering a little wave. 

“You’ve been a friend of the Pines family long?” She asked, pulling a kids coloring page out from her apron pocket, and sliding it over to Mabel said some crayons. Receiving a finger gun and bright smile from Mabel in response. 

“UH… a bit?” Steven responded, very unsure, he wasn’t even sure of what day it was anymore. 

She let out a small giggle, then proceeded to take all of their orders. She didn’t ever have to worry about getting their drink order and then coming back later, they usually got the same thing each time. Even Steven knew what to get, which was just what he got last time he came. His first meal in Gravity Falls. 

Once she left, all eyes were on Dipper, even Steven. However Steven was just looking to figure out what was even going on. 

“Why are you being so damn awkward, kid? I thought you said last time you saw her things went well?” Stan asked from across the table. 

“They did but…” Dipper cut himself off. “Nevermind, can we just..not do this today?” 

“Mmm I don’t know, Dip. It’s unavoidable, don’t you wanna know before we go off to college at the end of summer?” Mabel asked, using her black crayon to add extra clouds to her paper before actually coloring it. 

“Well yeah…” He said bashfully, raising a hand and pulling down on his face with a heavy sigh. “Maybe..” he added quieter ,moving his hand from his slightly stubbled chin to push the hair away from his forehead, revealing a birthmark that Steven had only gotten hints of before. Steven only hummed slightly to himself before Dipper’s poofy hair flopped back down to cover his forehead. The thought of someone seeing his birthmark didn’t even bother Dipper, not even the slightest. 

Soon Pacifica came back carrying trays of food, placing them down accordingly. However, Dipper’s mug of coffee came with a small folded note shoved in the handle. 

Once she left, Dipper swiped the paper out and unfolded it. 

‘Are you mad at me or something?’ 

Dipper let out an exasperated groan, then handed the paper to Mabel. 

“Oo that’s rough buddy” Mabel said, staring down at the note. Dipper stared down at his food, then gently pushed Ford so he was out of the booth chair, while Ford was still standing, Steven slid out and followed Dipper out of the diner. 

Dipper was sitting on a tree stump when Steven found him, but before Steven could say anything Dipper shouted out. 

“What is wrong with me?” 

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Steven said quietly as he joined Dipper on the stump. Despite Dipper’s frustration filling the air around him, Steven was really appreciating the woodland scents after spending the morning in Homeworld. Homeworld smelt like nothing, like artificial air, the only smells that could be detected were ones that they brought with them. 

“No… I’m stupid….” Dipper said, burying his face in his hands. 

“But didn’t you graduate as… valley… dent… podium?” Steven asked, completely forgetting the word. 

“Valedictorian, yeah… but” he groaned again “Pacifica and I almost kissed the other day during her lunch break…” 

“Oh?” 

He uncovered his face and looked into Steven’s hazel eyes,  
“But before our lips could meet…. I blurted out ‘I’m trans’ “ he said, doing sarcastic jazz hands “like… right in her face…. Then before she could say anything I ran off…” 

“But why did you run off?”Steven asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. 

“Ugh because… I wasn’t ready for the rejection” Dipper then slouched back over, covering his face. 

“How are you so sure you’d get rejected?” Steven asked, raising a brow as he realized that Pacifica walked out of the diner, her eyes roaming around looking for them. When her eyes met Steven, she raised her hands as in to question what was going on. Steven just shrugged then gave her a thumbs up, hoping she’ll go back inside. She gave him a strained expression then walked back inside. 

However, Steven didn’t doubt she’d be waiting for them once they got back inside. 

“Dipper...I know you may feel nervous about talking to her..but if she really liked you, do you think it’d really bother her?” Steven asked as he turned back to Dipper. 

“I-” Dipper cut himself off, he wasn’t sure. 

“Look..how about this… you talk to her...and maybe...ask her on a date?” Steven asked with a shrug. 

“I can’t do that,” Dipper said, panic in his face as he shot up and stared Steven in the eyes. 

“I mean...what if she just likes you for you, do you really want to get in your own way?” Steven asked, furrowing his brows and tilting his head ever so slightly. Dipper only hummed thoughtfully to himself. 

They decided to go back into the restaurant, hoping that they could finish their food before Dipper sees Pacifica again. 

Thankfully they did. 

Soon after the booth was done with their meal, Dipper stayed behind while the rest got in the car. Dipper and Pacifica walked outside of the restaurant, Steven and Mabel were quietly listening, while Stan and Ford were trying to act as casual as possible. 

All of them failed. 

Pacifica soon turned around, and walked back inside, while Dipper stood motionless for a few more moments. 

“Oh no…” Mabel mumbled over to rest in the car. 

“Wait…” Steven mumbled back. 

When Dipper turned around, he had a wide smile on his face. 

“YES!” Mabel shouted, as every single member in the car got out and ran to Dipper. 

“Oh shit…” Dipper mumbled as he realized they weren’t going to stop. His grunkles, sister, and friend smothered him in a group hug. They were all laughing and congratulating, but Stan was laughing like a crazy person.

~~~~~~~~~

Back at the shack, Mable and Dipper were sitting out the table, going over date ideas, while Stan sat on the couch watching some weird movie about a hamster and robots. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t get to show you all of Homeworld” Steven said quietly to Ford as they walked outside. 

“I understand that you wanted to show us Homeworld before the summer is over, but you shouldn’t show us something just because you feel like you should or solely for our satisfaction.” Ford said, glancing over to Steven before looking back up at the trees. “Besides, I spoke to someone while you slept, it’s not like I missed out on anything” he added. 

“Who…?” 

“No need to worry about it Steven, we all appreciate the sentiment, but our happiness shouldn’t be greater than your own. Finding something we can all enjoy is more important than showing us something you are unable to fully enjoy.” Ford looked back down at Steven, and placed his hand on Steven’s shoulder. 

“Thanks...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning.
> 
> Summer is ending guys...  
> only a few more chapters..  
> then it's all over. 
> 
> (go read the cross over if you want more of the story in the meantime, and you're an adult) <3


	40. An Experience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summer's coming to a close, it was now or never to ask...

“Hey Steven?” 

“Yeah Dipper?” Steven asked, turning around to face the window. He was sitting on the small ledge on the roof, coloring a picture he had been drawing of his dream the night before. 

Dipper felt a bit awkward leaning out of the window to talk to Steven, so he crawled out and sat on the ledge with him “what are you up to?”

Steven closed the journal before Dipper could sneak a glance “just drawing out a dream, what’s up buddy? You seem...distressed?” he asked, gently tilting his head to the side. 

“I don’t know man, I just feel… worried? What if she doesn’t really like me? And this is just an elaborate trick to humiliate me in front of everyone?” Dipper said, before he buried his face in his hands, and let out an exasperated groan. 

“I think you might just be over thinking it,” Steven said with a reassuring pat on the back.

“You’re right… I do have the tendency of over thinking and panicking about little things… god… what does she even see in a guy like me?” 

“You’re a great guy, Dipper” Steven said, placing a hand on his shoulder

“Mason” he quickly corrected

Steven tilted his head for a moment, then reiterated “You’re a great guy, Mason. You’re you, and that’s the best you you could be.” 

Dipper paused for a moment “hey...I actually have a question...that’s more personal…” 

“You can ask me anything, Mason” 

Dipper let out a small laugh “you can still call me Dipper, it’s been a nickname I’ve had for a … long time.” he cleared his throat “I know summer is ending soon, and I’ll be leaving to West Coast Tech on the 16th so I thought...uhm...the question I have is actually..about fusion…” he said awkwardly, looking away.

“What about it?” Steven asked, his brow rose as a lopsided smile appeared on his face. He knew where this was going, at least he suspected. 

“Well… Y’know how you fused with Ford?” he asked, receiving a nod from Steven “well I was wondering if...If you would consider fusing with me?” 

Steven bit the inside of his cheek for a moment, then tapped his journal on his lap “if we’re going to do that...there’s something I need to tell you…” Steven let out a sigh, hoping that Dipper wouldn’t be mad “I… I have the power to enter people’s minds...their thoughts...their dreams… and on occasion...I can take over their body while they’re asleep…” 

Dipper’s expression was almost blank… a sheet of disbelief… confusion… and something else he couldn’t quite pin. “Have you…” he paused, did he want to know the answer? Would it change anything? He knew Steven wasn’t a bad guy… “Have you done it since you’ve been here…?” Dipper asked hesitantly. 

Steven’s gaze moved down to his hands as he clenched his fist “I didn’t mean to…” 

“What did you do…?” 

“Well...one of the nights I...I entered your dream… you were being possessed...your voice was panicked echoing through my head...as your body looked calm….” 

Dipper’s eyebrows rose as an alarmed expression took over his face “w-what…” 

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to… sometimes my subconscious acts on it’s on own…” Steven said quietly, wrapping his arms around himself, as he looked down at his lap, he noticed a dim pink glow, shining onto it. He wasn’t aware of it at the time, but his eyes had changed from his anxiety of rejection and his forcefulness of not expressing it on his skin. They turned glowing bright pink and his pupils turning into small white diamonds. 

Dipper was too distracted by his thoughts to notice, he was staring out at the shack’s foregrounds “was that the only thing…” 

“I...once possessed Mabel…” Dipper’s eyes shot to Steven at his words “she was at her sleepover… once I noticed that I wasn’t in my own body I called Ford, and asked him to wake me up by any means...hitting... punching… I told Mabel as soon as I saw her…” 

“Oh…” Dipper’s eyes widened, he remembered waking up in the middle of the night to Ford beating up Steven “I see…” 

“If I could control it better...I really wouldn’t have done either of that without asking you and Mabel…” he said, finally looking up to Dipper. Of course, he purposefully possessed his watermelons on separate occasions… but that’s beside the point. 

Dipper paused his thoughts as he looked at Steven’s glowing pink eyes “eye… I can’t say I blame you… you are half alien...I’m sure if I had the powers you had… I wouldn’t be much better…” he paused “do.. do you know your eyes are glowing…?” 

“My eyes?” Steven asked, slighting going cross eyed… he almost forgot he can’t see them. Dipper pulled out his phone and took a quick picture of Steven’s eyes, and flipped his phone around to show him.  
“oh...I see…” 

There was a long silence before either of them spoke up again.

“Dipper...are you mad...at what I told you…?” Steven asked, his pink eyes boring into Dipper’s brown tired eyes. 

“I…” Dipper let out a heavy sigh “I’m not… I’m glad you decided to tell me… I could understand after…. Seeing my dream….that you wouldn’t want to tell me….” 

Steven looked down, closing his eyes hard, once he opened them again, they went back to their normal greenish brown “it’s not that I didn’t want to tell you… I was just… scared you’d hate me for it...or worse… it’d remind you of what happened...and hurt you…” 

“Oh… I get it…” Dipper pulled his hands together and tapped his index finger on the dorsal part of his opposite hand. “So… did you not want to fuse…?” He asked awkwardly.

Steven’s eyes widened in surprise “you still want to fuse?” 

“Yeah...sounds like an interesting experience” 

“Experience…” Steven whispered back to himself “yeah… I trust you, Mason...Do you trust me?” Dipper nodded, so Steven held out his hand and as soon as Dipper’s hand touched it, they were engulfed in a bright light. 

Then there was only one person sitting on the ledge. 

The first thing he did was look down at his hands, legs, feet… all the average numbers. He had two eyes, a nose and a mouth. He was wearing a combination of their clothes, Steven’s pink hoodie, with Dipper’s pin covered band vest. He pulled out his phone and looked at his face on the screen… his left eye was a dark brown like Dipper’s, while the right side was a greener hazel than Steven’s normally were. His jaw was more chiseled and his features more masculine, while Steven’s usually shaved down face gave this new form more stubble. 

“We could be a model looking like this…” he said to himself, followed by him laughing at his own comment “yeah we could huh?” 

He glanced down to see the exposed gem glistening in the sun, he swiftly moved the arm in front of him forming a shield. “huh...I thought magic would feel like...at least something” his low voice mumbled out “well it did at first but...it’s been years, now it just feels like.. Moving my arms I guess” 

He tapped his stubble covered chin for a moment “we should show Ford” he said as he slid off the roof and gently floated down to the ground. “Huh” 

There was a large tourist group coming into the shack as the new fusion made their way into the shack, but despite trying to make their way in briskly through the crowd they still picked up on a few comments.

“Oh wow…” 

“What a man…” 

“Am I in heaven?”

He awkwardly warped his arms around his body, making his way through the crowd… Once his arms were wrapped around, he noticed something.

His chest was flat. A wide smile grew on the fusion’s face as the idea of openly being recognized as a man by strangers, with no confusion… it was amazing. 

“Hey Ford” he said broadly. 

Ford raised a brow at the stranger “hello?” his eyes moving around for something to defend himself with...because as far as he knows...a stranger just entered his kitchen. 

“It’s me... “ he thought for a second before answering “Stason” 

“I don’t know a ‘Stason’ ” Ford said, crossing his arms. 

“Yeah you do, Steven and Mason” He said, his smile widening as his uncle’s brows rose, his eyes finally noticed the exposed gem.

“Oh wow! Look at you!” he said excitedly, pulling out his journal starting a drawing “wow, how do you feel?” 

“Pretty good,” he said, placing his hands on his hips. “PreTty good.” 

“I’m glad” Ford said with a smile and a pat on the shoulder “but you should know..lunch is ready…”

“OH! Yes!” he said, the kitchen filled with a bright light as they unfused. Once they were two people again they smiled, and Steven pulled Dipper into a hug. 

Dipper smiled and said

“that was a nice experience”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I know I haven't posted much in this story, I've been working on other projects and my fall semester for college just started so it's been a lot. I hope you guys are still excited to read, as much as I am about writing this story <3  
> (Thank you @Soup_with_fork on Instagram for the lovely idea, it was going to happen, but you reminded me :) )   
> If your school started up again, I hope you're taking care of yourself <3   
> Stay safe ^u^

**Author's Note:**

> It's been boring lately hasn't it? Being locked in our houses all day? I'll try updating often, I won't say exacly when. I know it's nice having a continuous story. SO I'll try my best. I know everyong is doing this cross over right now huh? I'm trying to be as origional as I can be. I'm not using anyone else's work to help write my own.  
> I'm trying to update a new chapter everyday, so come back and check up if a new chapter is out.


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